Insulinotropic Action of Methyl Pyruvate: Enzymatic and Metabolic Aspects (original) (raw)
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Glucose-induced activation of pyruvate dehydrogenase in isolated rat pancreatic islets
Biochemical Journal, 1990
1. Rat pancreatic islets were isolated and then maintained in culture for 2-4 days before being incubated in groups of 100 in the presence of different glucose (0-20 mM) or CaCl2 (1.2-4.2 mM) concentrations, or with uncoupler. 2. Increases in extracellular glucose concentration resulted in increases in the amount of active, non-phosphorylated, pyruvate dehydrogenase in the islets, with half-maximal effects around 5-6 mM-glucose. Increasing extracellular glucose from 3 to 20 mM resulted in a 4-6-fold activation of pyruvate dehydrogenase within 2 min. 3. The total enzyme activity was unchanged, and averaged 0.4 m-unit/100 islets at 37 degrees C. 4. These changes in active pyruvate dehydrogenase were broadly similar to changes in insulin secretion by the islets. 5. Increasing extracellular Ca2+ or adding uncoupler also activated pyruvate dehydrogenase to a similar degree, but only the former was associated with increased insulin secretion.
Hexose metabolism in pancreatic islets: pyruvate carboxylase activity
Biochimie, 1991
The anaplerotic hypothesis ~or insulin t deas¢ oostulates that an increased generation of malonyl-CoA, acyl residues and diacylglycerol in nutrient-stimulated pancreatic islets may couple the catabolism of nutrient secretagogues to more distal events in the secretory sequence. In the light of this hypothesis, pyruvate carboxylase activity was measured in rat pancreatic islets using two distinct radioisotopic procedures. The first procedure is based on the conversion of oxalacetate generated from pyruvate to 14Clabelled citrate in the presence of [1-14C]acetyl-CoA and citrate synthase. The second technique involves the conversion of 14Clabelled oxalacetate generated from [ 1-14C]pyruvate to radioactive aspartate in the presence of L-glutamate and glutamate-oxalacetate transaminase. Pyruvate carboxylase activity amounted to l0 pmol/min per islet, was restricted to mitochondria, displayed a Km for pyruvate close to 0.4 mM, and demonstrated dependency towards ATP (apparent Ka close to 0.1 mM), Mg 2÷ and acetyl-CoA. It is proposed that pyruvate carboxylase activity accounts for the generation of 14C-labelled amino acids other than alanine in islets exposed to o-[3,4A4C]glucose and participates to the pyruvate/citrate shuttle for the transport of acetyl-CoA out of the mitochondfia in nutrient-stimulated islets. pancreatic islets / pyruvate carboxylase / insulin release
The Biochemical journal, 1993
1. During conversion of [6-3H,U-14C]glucose to glycogen in liver, loss of 6-3H can occur either by cycling via pyruvate (between glycolysis and gluconeogenesis) or by other mechanisms. We used mercaptopicolinate, an inhibitor of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, to determine the extent to which pyruvate cycling contributes to loss of 6-3H during glucose conversion to glycogen in hepatocytes. 2. Mercaptopicolinate increased the 3H/14C ratio in glycogen during incubation of rat, guinea pig, pig and human hepatocytes with [6-3H,U-14C]glucose. The increase in the 3H/14C ratio in glycogen caused by mercaptopicolinate was greater in periportal than in perivenous rat hepatocytes, indicating that cycling of glucose via pyruvate is more prominent in cells with a higher gluconeogenic relative to glycolytic capacity. 3. The effect of mercaptopicolinate on the 3H/14C ratio in glycogen was observed both in the absence and in the presence of insulin, indicating that stimulation of glycogen synth...
1. The activities of pyruvate dehydrogenase in rat lymphocytes and mouse macrophages are much lower than those of the key enzymes of glycolysis and glutaminolysis. However, the rates of utilization of pyruvate (at 2 mM), from the incubation medium, are not markedly lower than the rate of utilization of glucose by incubated lymphocytes or that of glutamine by incubated macrophages. This suggests that the low rate of oxidation of pyruvate produced from either glucose or glutamine in these cells is due to the high capacity of lactate dehydrogenase, which competes with pyruvate dehydrogenase for pyruvate. 2. Incubation of either macrophages or lymphocytes with dichloroacetate had no effect on the activity of subsequently isolated pyruvate dehydrogenase; incubation of mitochondria isolated from lymphocytes with dichloroacetate had no effect on the rate of conversion of [1-'4C]pyruvate into 14CO2, and the double-reciprocal plot of [I-4C]pyruvate concentration against rate of 4CO2 production was linear. In contrast, ADP or an uncoupling agent increased the rate of '4CO2 production from [1-14C]pyruvate by isolated lymphocyte mitochondria. These data suggest either that pyruvate dehydrogenase is primarily in the a form or that pyruvate dehydrogenase in these cells is not controlled by an interconversion cycle, but. by end-product inhibition by NADH and/or acetyl-CoA. 3. The rate of conversion of [3-14C]pyruvate into CO2 was about 15 % of that from [1-14C]pyruvate in isolated lymphocytes, but was only 1 % in isolated lymphocyte mitochondria. The inhibitor of mitochondrial pyruvate transport, oc-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamate, inhibited both [1-14C]-and [3-'4C]-pyruvate conversion into 14CO2 to the same extent, and by more than 80 %. 4. Incubations of rat lymphocytes with concanavalin A had no effect on the rate of conversion of [1-14C]pyruvate into 14CO2, but increased the rate of conversion of [3-14C]pyruvate into 14CO2 by about 50 %. This suggests that this mitogen causes a stimulation of the activity of pyruvate carboxylase.
Potentiation by methyl pyruvate of GLP-1 insulinotropic action in normal rats
International Journal of Molecular Medicine, 2001
Methyl pyruvate (MP) stimulates insulin release both in vivo and in vitro. The present study aims at investigating whether MP is also able to enhance the B-cell secretory response to glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1). In anaesthetized rats receiving a primed constant infusion of MP, the ester augmented plasma insulin concentration before GLP-1 injection and potentiated the insulinotropic action of the intestinal hormone. MP infusion also augmented plasma Dglucose concentration, whether in the absence or presence of GLP-1. A further rise in plasma D-glucose concentration was observed when the infusion of MP was halted, this coinciding with a fall in plasma insulin concentration. Whilst documenting that MP indeed enhances the B-cell secretory response to GLP-1, these findings do not suggest that MP is an appropriate tool for optimizing the hypoglycaemic action of the enteric hormone in the treatment of type-2 diabetes mellitus.
Biochemical Journal, 1968
1. Preincubation of partially purified rat liver L-type pyruvate kinase at 25° for 10min. causes a marked increase in co-operativity with respect to both the substrate, phosphoenolpyruvate, and the allosteric activator, fructose 1,6-diphosphate. 2. The results are consistent with the existence of two forms of liver L-type pyruvate kinase, designated forms LA and LB. It is postulated that form LA has a low Km for phosphoenolpyruvate (about 0·1mm) and is not allosterically activated, whereas form LB is allosterically activated by fructose 1,6-diphosphate, exhibiting in the absence of the activator sigmoidal kinetics with half-maximal activity at about 1mm-phosphoenolpyruvate. In the presence of fructose 1,6-diphosphate, form LB gives Michaelis–Menten kinetics with Km less than 0·1mm. It is further postulated that preincubation converts form LA into form LB. 3. The influence of pH on the preincubation effect was studied. 4. The inhibition of pyruvate kinase by Cu2+ was studied in detai...