Insulin secretion by fetal human pancreas in organ culture

Abstract

Whole fetal human pancreases of 12–22 weeks gestation, showed histological growth and differentiation in vitro over 3 weeks. At glucose concentrations of 1–4 g/l, there was no difference in insulin secretion into culture medium over 1 h. There was no stimulation of insulin release by D-glyceraldehyde, thus defective glucose-stimulated insulin release was probably not due to impairment of an early step in glycolysis. In the presence of 0.5 mmol/l dibutyryl cyclic AMP, insulin secretion was enhanced (0.188±0.030 versus 0.100±0.012 mU·mg tissue^-1·h^-1, p-1·h^-1, p-1·h^-1, p<0.001), emphasizing the important role of amino acids as substrates for B cell metabolism and development.