Neonatal pancreas transplantation and liver enzyme activities in diabetic mice

The aim of this study was to estimate the influence of transplantation of neonatal pancreas from singenic donors on glucose production and utilisation in alloxan diabetic mice. The alloxan diabetic mice, 20 days after alloxan, received neonatal pancreas from singenic donors under the kidney capsule. Enzymes involved in glycolytic, gluconeogenic, lipogenic and pentose phosphate pathway were examined in liver of experimental mice. The fructose-1, 6-diphosphatase (FDPase) activity in the liver of diabetics increased for about 60%, while the pyruvate inase (PK) and ATP-citrate lyase (CEE) activity decreased for about 40% of the values in the healthy mice. The values of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6P-DH) and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6-PGDH) were not statistically different in diabetic liver compared with the liver off healthy animals. After pancreas transplantation some of diabetic animals become normoglycaemic, while the others remained hyperglycaemic. The FDPase activity in hyperglycaemic diabetic recipients was similar to those in diabetic mice that did not received transplant, while in normoglycaemic recipients the FDPase activity returned to the normal values. However, the activities of PK and CCE in hyperglycaemic recipients were similar to those in healthy animals, while in normogglycaemic recipients the enzyme activities were much higher. Results obtained showed that glycolytic, gluconeogenic and lipogenic enzyme activities in the liver of normoglycaemic mice that received pancreas transplant reached approximate the physiological values within 30 days after transplantation.