Glucose stimulates and potentiates islet amyloid polypeptide secretion by the B-cell

Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) has been shown to be actively secreted by the pancreatic B-cell along with insulin. To determine whether the modulation of B-cell IAPP secretion is similar to that of insulin, we assessed IAPP release in response to glucose at 4 different concentrations (1.67, 5.5, 8.8 and 16.7 mM) and to non-glucose secretagogues at different glucose concentrations in a neonatal rat islet monolayer culture preparation. Glucose alone stimulated IAPP and insulin secretion in a dose dependent fashion with maximal release for both peptides occurring at 8.8 mM. B-cell secretion of IAPP in response to arginine, isobutylmethylxanthine or both together was potentiated by increasing glucose concentrations from 1.67 to 16.7 mM. This same pattern of glucose potentiation was observed for insulin secretion. The data indicate that the pattern of peptide responses of cultured neonatal B-cells to glucose is similar for both IAPP and insulin release. Furthermore, the data suggest that glucose is capable of potentiating B-cell secretion of both IAPP and insulin.