Hormonal and non-hormonal protein biosynthesis in the pancreatic beta cell of the intact rat after prolonged hyperglycaemia.

We examined the relative changes in the rates of biosynthesis of (pro)insulin and of non-hormonal beta cell proteins in rats with pronounced hyperglycaemia for up to several days. Labelling of pancreatic cells in vivo eliminated certain pitfalls that we encountered when isolated pancreatic islets from these rats were labelled in vitro. Rats were infused with glucose or buffer solutions for 24 and 72 h. Glucose-infused rats had sustained hyperglycaemia throughout the infusion periods. L[4,5-3H]leucine or L[2,3-3H]tryptophan (an amino acid absent from proinsulin) was injected iv 30 min before the rats were killed. Pancreatic islets were isolated by enzymatic digestion of the pancrease. Pancreatic islets from the rats injected with [3H]leucine were processed for measurement of [3H]proinsulin and [3H]insulin by a double antibody immunoprecipitation procedure. Islets from rats injected with [3H]tryptophan were processed for autoradiography, in order to assess the incorporation of label into non-hormonal sedentary beta cell proteins. Incorporation of [3H]leucine into proinsulin and insulin per beta cell was estimated to be about 2-2.5 (24 h infusion) and 3.5-4 (72 h infusion) times greater in the hyperglycaemic than in normoglycaemic rats. Incorporation of [3H]tryptophan into non-hormonal beta cell proteins showed similar increments in the hyperglycaemic rats. Contrary to our expectation these results indicate that glucose does not exert a significant preferential effect on insulin biosynthesis even after sustained stimulation of the beta cells. Instead, glucose seems to increase equally the incorporation of labelled amino acids into proinsulin and into non-hormonal, beta cell proteins.