Inhibition of pancreatic islet monoamine oxidase by adrenergic antagonists and ethanol.

Although the alpha-adrenergic antagonist phentolamine potentiates glucose-stimulated insulin secretion of intact animals, it either does not alter, or it inhibits in vitro insulin secretion. This may be because in the higher concentration used in in vitro studies, phentolamine exerts a second pharmacological effect that counterbalances its primary effect of blocking monoamine action. We recently demonstrated that pancreatic islets contain substantial amounts of monoamine oxidase (MAO), and that MAO inhibitors such as iproniazid and tranylcypromine can alter insulin secretion. In the present study, we determined if other drugs that affect insulin secretion, alter the MAO activity of homogenates of rabbit pancreatic islets (collagenase technique) or liver. Phentolamine, phenoxybenzamine and propranolol (10 muM and 100 muM) inhibit islet and hepatic MAO. Haloperidol (10muM) inhibits hepatic but not islet MAO, while haloperidol (10muM) does not inhibit MAO in either tissue. Ethanol (270 to 2.7mM) inhibits islet MAO. Hepatic MAO is inhibited by high (270 to 180mM) but not by low (27 to 2.7mM) concentrations of ethanol. Collagenase digestion does not increase the sensitivity of islet and liver MAO to inhibition by phentolamine or ethanol. In the absence of added monoamines, phentolamine and phenoxybenzamine do not alter basal or glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from rabbit pancreas. Preincubation of rabbit pancreas with the serotonin precursor 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) increases the beta cell serotonin content and inhibits glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Alpha adrenergic antagonists not only fail to block, but actually potentiate the serotonin inhibition of insulin secretion. We conclude that inhibition of islet MAO may cause an increase in islet monoamine content and these monoamines may alter in vitro insulin secretion. One mechanism through which adrenergic antagonists and ethanol modify in vitro insulin secretion may be by inhibiting pancreatic islet MAO.