In vitro effect of exogenous insulin on insulin secretion. Studies with glucose, leucine, arginine, aminophylline and tolbutamide.

Using rat pancreatic islets and the perfused rat pancreas, the effect of exogenous insulin on insulin secretion mediated by glucose, leucine, arginine, aminophylline and tolbutamide was studied. (1) In both systems the insulin releasing capacity of glucose was inhibited by exogenous insulin. In the perfused pancreas the inhibition concerned the first and the second phase of insulin release; (2) the EC50 (half-maximal inhibitory effect of insulin on glucose-induced insulin secretion) in islets was 1.2 nM (= 160 microU/ml) and 2.8 nM (390 microU/ml) in perfused pancreas; (3) exogenous insulin also inhibited insulin release in response to leucine and arginine in the isolated islet system and in the perfused pancreas; (4) using aminophylline and tolbutamide in combination with glucose, the extent of the inhibitory effect of insulin was in the range of the inhibitory effect when glucose was used alone as stimulator in islets. Data suggest that the insulinogenic action of physiological stimulators including glucose, leucine and arginine is inhibited by exogenous insulin whereas this seems not to be the case when insulin release was stimulated by aminophylline and tolbutamide. Comparing the EC50s, isolated islets seem to be more sensitive to inhibition than the perfused pancreas when glucose was used as stimulator. As far as glucose is concerned the inhibitory effect seems to depend on the extent of its concentration and/or the extent to which the mechanism of insulin release is sensitive to stimulation. The EC50 of the inhibitory effect of exogenous insulin was in the range of dissociation constant of binding of insulin to insulin receptors of islets.