Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10770198 | Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications | 2005 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
The establishment of surrogate islet β cells is important for the treatment of diabetes. Hepatocytes have a similar glucose sensing system as β cells and have the potential to serve as surrogate β cells. In this report, we demonstrate that infection of Hepa1-6 liver cells with a lentivirus expressing the human insulin cDNA results in expression and secretion of human insulin. Furthermore, we show that l-arginine at low levels of glucose significantly stimulates the release of insulin from these cells, compared to exposure to high concentration of glucose. The arginine-induced insulin release is via the production of nitric oxide, since treatment with NG-nitro-l-arginine, an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, blocks insulin secretion induced by l-arginine. These results indicate that nitric oxide plays a role in l-arginine-stimulated insulin release in hepatocytes expressing the human insulin gene, and provides a new strategy to induce insulin secretion from engineered non-β cells.
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Authors
Qingwen Qian, John P. Williams, Dennis G. Karounos, Sabire Ãzcan,