TY - JOUR
T1 - D-Alanine in the islets of Langerhans of rat pancreas
AU - Ota, Nobutoshi
AU - Rubakhin, Stanislav S.
AU - Sweedler, Jonathan V.
N1 - Funding Information:
The project was supported by Award Nos. CHE-11-11705 from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry (with co-funding from the Division of Biological Infrastructure), DA018310 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse , and NS031609 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the award agencies.
PY - 2014/5/2
Y1 - 2014/5/2
N2 - Relatively high levels of d-alanine (d-Ala), an endogenous d-amino acid, have been found in the endocrine systems of several animals, especially in the anterior pituitary; however, its functional importance remains largely unknown. We observed d-Ala in islets of Langerhans isolated from rat pancreas in significantly higher levels than in the anterior/intermediate pituitary; specifically, 180 ± 60 fmol d-Ala per islet (300 ± 100 nmol/g islet), and 10 ± 2.5 nmol/g of wet tissue in pituitary. Additionally, 12 ± 5% of the free Ala in the islets was in the d form, almost an order of magnitude higher than the percentage of d-Ala found in the pituitary. Surprisingly, glucose stimulation of the islets resulted in d-Ala release of 0.6 ± 0.5 fmol per islet. As d-Ala is stored in islets and released in response to changes in extracellular glucose, d-Ala may have a hormonal role.
AB - Relatively high levels of d-alanine (d-Ala), an endogenous d-amino acid, have been found in the endocrine systems of several animals, especially in the anterior pituitary; however, its functional importance remains largely unknown. We observed d-Ala in islets of Langerhans isolated from rat pancreas in significantly higher levels than in the anterior/intermediate pituitary; specifically, 180 ± 60 fmol d-Ala per islet (300 ± 100 nmol/g islet), and 10 ± 2.5 nmol/g of wet tissue in pituitary. Additionally, 12 ± 5% of the free Ala in the islets was in the d form, almost an order of magnitude higher than the percentage of d-Ala found in the pituitary. Surprisingly, glucose stimulation of the islets resulted in d-Ala release of 0.6 ± 0.5 fmol per islet. As d-Ala is stored in islets and released in response to changes in extracellular glucose, d-Ala may have a hormonal role.
KW - Capillary electrophoresis
KW - Chiral separation
KW - d-Alanine
KW - d-Amino acid
KW - Endocrine system
KW - Islets of Langerhans
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U2 - 10.1016/j.bbrc.2014.03.153
DO - 10.1016/j.bbrc.2014.03.153
M3 - Article
C2 - 24721429
AN - SCOPUS:84899949420
VL - 447
SP - 328
EP - 333
JO - Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
JF - Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
SN - 0006-291X
IS - 2
ER -