[Action of [3,14-L-selenocysteine, 8-D-tryptophan]-somatostatin on insulin and glucagon secretion of the isolated...

By isolated perfused pancreas of Wistar rats the glucose (11 mmol/l) and arginine (10 mmol/l) stimulated insulin (IRI) and glucagon (IRG) secretion was measured in order to investigate the inhibitory activities of somatostatin-14 (SS 14) and the somatostatin analogue [3,14-L-seleno-cysteine, 8-D-tryptophan]-somatostatin (SeSS). SS-14 or SeSS (152.8 nmol/l) inhibit the glucose stimulated IRI secretion by 75 and 65%, respectively. Only the second phase of the biphasic arginine stimulated insulin secretion pattern by 40%. SeSS has under these conditions no effect, whereas 58 nmol/l SS-14 or SeSS show a suppressing effect on the first (20 and 55%, respectively) and second phase (65 and 85%, respectively) of the insulin secretion. Using 5.8 nmol/l SS-14 or SeSS the arginine stimulated IRG secretion was inhibited only in the second phase of the biphasic glucagon secretion pattern by about 40%. 58 nmol/l SS-14 or SeSS show an inhibiting effect on the first and on the second phase of secretion, in both cases about 50%. It is concluded that in the SS-14 molecule the sulfur of cysteine in position 3 and 14 can be exchanged by selenium without modifying the biological activities measured in the glucose or arginine stimulated IRI and IRG secretion in vitro. The D-Trp8 in the SeSS analogue does not show the typical better inhibitory action of D-Trp8-SS-14 on insulin and glucagon secretion compared with SS-14. Possibly the selenium in the SeSS analogue abolishes this effect.