Abstract
Cysteamine is known to deplete the immunoreactive somatostatin content in different organs from rat and mouse. The aim of the present work was to test if cysteamine also affects the somatostatin content in guinea-pig islets, since guinea-pigs have a carbohydrate metabolism different from that of other laboratory animals. Cysteamine was injected to guinea-pigs and the pancreatic islets were isolated four hours later. Cysteamine was also incubated in vitro with isolated pancreatic islets from untreated guinea-pigs. Cysteamine depleted the somatostatin content in the pancreatic islets in both the in vivo and in vitro studies.
Highlights
It is well known that the ulcerogenic substance cysteamine (2-amino-ethanethiol), injected in vivo, causes a selective depletion of somatostatin in many organs in both the mouse and rat (7, 6, 3 )
The aim of the present work was to test if cysteamine affects the somatostatin content in guinea-pig islets, since guinea-pigs have a carbohydrate metabolism different from that of other laboratory animals
In vitro incubation of islets with cysteamine for four hours at a concentration of 100,ug/ml resulted in a marked depletion of somatostatin, but at 10 /ug/ml cysteamine did not have this effect
Summary
It is well known that the ulcerogenic substance cysteamine (2-amino-ethanethiol), injected in vivo, causes a selective depletion of somatostatin in many organs in both the mouse and rat (7, 6, 3 ). Cysteamine is known to decrease the somatostatin content of pancreatic islets in vitro [4,5]. The guinea-pig is associated with several biochemical peculiarities and both its insulin and glucagon amino acid sequences are different from those of other animals. The general amino acid sequence for somatostatin seems, to be conserved in guinea-pigs ( 1 ). In view of its biochemical peculiarities,it is of particular interest to follow the effect of cysteamine on somatostatin in the guinea-pig. In the present study we measured somatostatin in isolated pancreatic islets of guinea-pigs after administration of cysteamine in vivo and after exposure of the islets to cysteamine in vitro
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