Organ culture of isolated rat pancreatic islets with reference to A-cell function.

Investigation of the control of glucagon secretion has suffered from the lack of suitable in vitro models. The present studies were initiated to further validate the use of organ cultured islets for such investigation and to develop methods for obtaining rat islets relatively depleted of B cells. Rat islets maintained in tissue culture for 1 week are shown to respond to glucose, epinephrine, acetylcholine, arginine, and somatostatin in a physiologic manner. High glucose concentration during culture is associated with increased glucagon secretion despite increased insulin secretion. Treatment of rats with diabetogenic agents just prior to islet isolation results in B-cell deterioration during culture and insulin content about 20% normal after 1 week of culture. B-cell depleted islets show no glucagon suppression by glucose despite the presence of insulin.