Studies on insulin secretion by monolayer cultures of normal and tumorous human pancreatic cells. Effects of glucose, somatostatin and SMS 201-995.

Recently, somatostatin analogs have been introduced which can be used clinically in the treatment of tumorous or functional hypoglycemia. In the present study we investigated in vitro the regulation, the degree of autonomy and the sensitivity to natural somatostatin and its analog SMS 201-995 of insulin secretion by monolayer cultures of human pancreatic cells obtained from patients with insulinomas and from a newborn with nesidioblastosis. All cultures released insulin upon the addition of dibutyryl-cAMP and calcium, demonstrating their intact viability. Insulin secretion from nontumorous pancreatic cells surrounding an insulinoma was dose-dependently stimulated by glucose. In contrast, insulin release by B cells from a patient with nesidioblastosis and from 2 insulinomas was not stimulated by the addition of glucose. Native somatostatin (SRIF) and the synthetic analog SMS 201-995 inhibited insulin secretion from all cultures. The inhibitory effects of SRIF and SMS in the culture from the nesidioblastosis tissue, could be reversed by the addition of 11.2 mmol glucose/l, but not in one of the insulinoma cultures. This demonstrates that some sensitivity to glucose is present in B cells from the nesidioblastosis tissue, despite the unresponsiveness to glucose alone. Insulin release by insulinoma cells was blocked by somatostatin, while it was inhibited to some extent only in the cultures of nontumor B cells and of cells from the nesidioblastosis tissue. In conclusion, it was shown that insulin release by the cultured B cells obtained from several pathological conditions differed with regard to the autonomy of hormone release (glucose sensitivity) and the sensitivity to somatostatin and its analog.