Maintenance of neonatal endocrine cells of the rat. I. Effects of 2-deoxyglucose and 2-deoxy-2-fluoroglucose.

Pancreatic endocrine cells of the neonatal rat cultured in medium with 5.5 mM glucose for 7 days showed no response to glucose. By contrast, the supplementation of the medium with 1.0 mM 2-deoxyglucose or with 0.1-5.0 mM 2-deoxy-2-fluoroglucose maintained the capacity of glucose-induced insulin release and biosynthesis, and the recovery of insulin in cells at day 7 at levels significantly higher than in basal medium; the highest responses were recorded for 1.0 mM deoxysugars. Moreover, the addition of 1.0 mM deoxysugars caused a selective deletion of fibroblasts and yielded monolayers mostly consisted of endocrine cells at the end of the culture study period. In these monolayer cells, the stimulating level of c-AMP release was significantly higher than the basal. On the other hand, the in vitro function of A cells in culture was also better preserved in media with 1.0 mM deoxysugars.