Metabolic activation of Ca(2+)-independent phosphoinositide hydrolysis in beta-cells and its role in the control of insulin secretion

Abstract

Recent studies have led to the proposal that the oxidative metabolism of glucose leads to the generation of messengers, in addition to ATP, that are important in the ability of changes in extracellular glucose concentration to stimulate insulin secretion from pancreatic beta-cells. In particular, there is now evidence that glucose induces both a Ca(2+)-dependent and Ca(2+)-independent increase in phosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis. To explore the relationship between oxidative metabolism and PI hydrolysis, we examined the effect of low concentrations (2.5 mM) of alpha-ketoisocaproate (KIC) and monomethylsuccinate (MMSucc) either alone or in combination on insulin secretion and PI hydrolysis in isolated rat pancreatic islets incubated with either no glucose, 5 mM glucose, or 20 mM glucose. A combination of KIC and MMSucc leads to a marked increase in largely (80%) Ca(2+)-independent PI hydrolysis in either the absence or presence of 5 mM glucose. When glucose is absent, this combination of substrates induces a very small and transient first phase of insulin secretion but no significant second phase of secretion. In the presence of 5 mM glucose, either KIC or MMSucc alone induces a first phase of insulin secretion with a peak secretory rate 10-fold greater than the basal rate but only a small second phase of secretion approximately 5-fold above control. However, in the presence of 5 mM glucose, the combination of KIC plus MMSucc induces a large biphasic increase in insulin secretion: peak first-phase secretion is increased 30-fold, and second-phase 40-fold. These response are comparable to those induced by 20 mM glucose and are completely inhibited by 0.5 microM nitrendipine. In contrast, KIC plus MMSucc do not enhance the insulin secretory response induced by 20 mM glucose. Previous data showed that when 20 mM glucose acts, the resulting increase in PI hydrolysis is only partially Ca2+ dependent. A reanalysis of these data shows that raising the glucose concentration from 5 to 7 mM causes a 2-fold increase in Ca(2+)-independent PI hydrolysis, and a further increase to 20 mM leads to a further 2-fold increase in Ca(2+)-dependent PI hydrolysis. These data show that these two pathways are regulated by different ranges of glucose concentration. They raise the interesting possibility that these distinct pathways have different signaling functions. In particular, raising the glucose concentration from 5 to 7 mM is known to alter the responsiveness of beta-cells to a variety of neurohumoral agonists and to tolbutamide.