Abstract
1. We studied a possible interplay of pancreatic NO synthase activity on insulin secretion induced by different beta cell secretagogues and also on pancreatic vascular bed resistance. 2. This study was performed in the isolated perfused pancreas of the rat. Blockage of NO synthase was achieved with Nw-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME); The specificity of the antagonist was checked by using its D-enantiomer as well as by substitutive treatments with sodium nitroprusside (SNP) as a NO donor in studies of glucose-induced insulin secretion. 3. Arginine (5 mM) induced a monophasic response which was, in the presence of L-NAME at equimolar concentration, very strongly potentiated and converted into a 13 times higher biphasic one. D-NAME (5 mM) was only able to induce a 3 times higher response, but provoked a similar vasoconstrictor effect. 4. The small biphasic insulin secretion induced by L-leucine (5 mM) was also strongly enhanced, by 8 times, in the presence of L-NAME (5 mM) vs 2 times in the presence of D-NAME (5 mM). 5. beta cell responses to KCl (5 mM) and tolbutamide (0.185 mM) were only slight increased by L-NAME (5 mM) to values not far from the sum of the effects of L-NAME and of the two drugs alone. D-NAME (5 mM) was totally ineffective on the actions of both secretagogues. 6. L-NAME, infused 15 min before and during a rise in glucose concentration from 5 to 11 mM, was able in the low millimolar range (0.1-0.5 mM) to blunt the classical biphasic pattern of beta cell response to glucose and, at 5 mM, to convert it into a significantly greater monophasic one. In contrast, D-NAME (5 mM) was unable to induce similar effects. 7. SNP alone at 3 microM was ineffective but at 30 microM substantially reduced to second phase of insulin response to glucose; however, at both concentrations the NO donor partly reversed alterations in insulin secretion caused by L-NAME (5 mM) and restored a biphasic response.