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The glucose-induced synthesis of insulin in liver

Endocrine volume 38, pages 294–302 (2010)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 07 December 2011

Abstract

Pancreatic β cells, stimulated by glucose, are known to synthesize and secrete insulin. As liver diseases are reported to cause diabetes mellitus, studies were conducted to determine the possibility of glucose-induced insulin synthesis in the liver cells. The glucose-induced insulin synthesis was determined by in vitro translation of mRNA from the hepatocytes. The cDNA from mRNA was prepared and sequence analysis was performed. Incubation of hepatocytes from the liver of adult mice (n = 10) with glucose (0.02 M) resulted in the insulin synthesis [0.03 (mean) ± 0.006 (S.D.) μunits/mg/h] compared to the pancreatic β cells [0.04 ± 0.004 μunits/mg/h]. Immunohistochemical study also demonstrated the glucose-induced synthesis of insulin in liver cells. Incubation of the mice hepatocytes with glucose resulted in the synthesis of insulin mRNA. The purified mRNA which was used to prepare cDNA resulted in the formation of proinsulin I and proinsulin II genes corresponding to 182 and 188 base pairs, respectively. Sequence analysis of the cDNA indicated that proinsulin I as well as proinsulin II gene could be involved in the synthesis of insulin by hepatocytes. These results suggested that insulin synthesis in both hepatic and pancreatic cells could be involved in the control of diabetes mellitus.

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Affiliations

  1. Sinha Institute of Medical Science and Technology, 288, Kendua Main Road, Garia, Calcutta, 700 084, India

    Rajeshwary Ghosh, Soumendra K. Karmohapatra & A. Kumar Sinha

  2. Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, Calcutta, 700014, India

    Gorachand Bhattacharya

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  1. Rajeshwary Ghosh
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  2. Soumendra K. Karmohapatra
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  3. Gorachand Bhattacharya
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  4. A. Kumar Sinha
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Correspondence to A. Kumar Sinha.

Additional information

Part of this work was published as an abstract in the proceeding of the Annual Workshop in Biological Sciences, Calcutta, 2009.

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12020-011-9571-1

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Ghosh, R., Karmohapatra, S.K., Bhattacharya, G. et al. The glucose-induced synthesis of insulin in liver. Endocr 38, 294–302 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-010-9388-3

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Keywords

  • Hepatocytes
  • Insulin synthesis
  • Proinsulin I
  • Proinsulin II