Cationic and secretory effects of 6-O-acetyl-D-glucose in rat pancreatic islets

Selected esters of D-glucose were recently proposed as tools to supply the sugar to cells affected by a defect in the carrier-mediated process of hexose transport across the plasma membrane. The present study extends this knowledge to 6-O-acetyl-D-glucose. At a 2.0 mM concentration, the ester was indeed found to stimulate insulin release from perifused rat pancreatic islets. This coincided with stimulation of calcium influx into the islet cells, as judged from comparison of the ester effects on 45Ca outflow from prelabelled islets perifused in either the absence or presence of extracellular Ca2+. The facilitated inflow of Ca2+ did not appear attributable to a decrease in K+ conductance, 6-O-acetyl-D-glucose augmenting 86Rb efflux from islets prelabelled with this radioactive cation. Both the latter phenomenon and the insulinotropic action of 6-O-acetyl-D-glucose failed to be antagonized by D-mannoheptulose. These findings indicate that the cationic events coupling the recognition of D-glucose to the stimulation of insulin release are not identical in islets exposed to the hexose or its ester.