Secretory response of Tetrahymena to insulin: the influence of electric pulses.

The secretion of the enzyme hexosaminidase (HA) by Tetrahymena pyriformis, T. thermophila and T. thermophila mutant (MS1) cells was studied on the action of insulin or insulin in combination with electric pulses. The three species of Tetrahymena responded by different rates of enzyme activity. Following insulin or insulin + electrical pulses, the daughter cells of T. pyriformis manifested similar effects 24 h later by elevating the extracellular HA level, being higher when electrical pulses were included in the action on the parental cells. Insulin combined with electric pulses gave higher inter-strain differences in the reaction of Tetrahymena as reflected by HA enzyme measurements. MS1 cells lacking the capacity to release lysosomal enzymes when exposed to insulin with electric stimulation elicited a high level of HA released.