Case 6 Flashcards
The islets of langerhans account for what proportion of cells in the pancreas?
1%
What are the four types of cells in pancreatic islets?
Alpha cells, Beta cells, Delta cells and F cells
What is the role of alpha cells in pancreatic islets?
Release of the hormone glucagon that raises blood glucose levels by increasing the rate of glycogen and glucose release by the liver
What is the role of the beta cells of the pancreatic islets?
Release of the hormone insulin that lowers blood sugar levels by increasing the rate of uptake of glucose by most body cells and increasing glycogen synthesis in skeletal muscle
What is the role of delta cells in the islets of langerhans?
Release of a peptide hormone identical to growth hormone inhibiting hormone (GH-IH/somatostatin) that suppresses the release of glucagonn and insulin by other islet cells and slows the rate of food absorption and enzyme secretion along the digestive tract
What is the role of the F cells of the islets of langerhans?
They produce pancreatic polypeptide which inhibits gall bladder contractions and regulates the production of some pancreatic enzymes thereby helping to control the rate of nutrient absorption by the digestive tract
Elevated levels of what stimulate the release of insulin?
glucose blood levels and raised levels of some amino acids such as arginine and leucine
What is the general structure of insulin?
It is a peptide hormone composed of two amino acid chains attached to each other by disulphide bridges
What is the clearance of insulin in the blood?
It has a half life of 6 minutes and so is mostly cleared from circulation in 10-15 minutes insulin that does not bind to a receptor generally is degraded by insulinase in the liver and to a lesser extent the kidneys and muscle
Whatis the structure of the insulin receptor?
It is composed of four subunits. two alpha subunits that lie entirely outside the membrane and two beta subunits that penetrate through the membrane protruding into the cytoplasm
What happens when insulin binds to the alpha subunits of the insulin receptor?
the portion of the beta subunits that protrude into the cell become autophosphorylated
Activation of an insulin receptor and subsequent autophosphorylation of its beta subunits caused the activation of what enzyme? what effect does this have?
a local tyrosine kinase is activated which causes phosphorylation of multiplee other intracellular enzymes most notably the insulin receptor substrates (IRS)
The formation of what is stimulated by insulin in adipose tissue?
triglycerides
What is GLUT4?
an insulin dependent glucose transporter
What happens to the majority of glucose that enters cells upon its insulin stimulated uptake?
It is phosphorylated and becomes a substrate for usual carbohydrate metabolic functions
What is insulin’s effect on amino acid potassium and phosphate metabolism?
Cells become more permeable to amino acids phosphate and potassium, amino acid absorption and protein synthesis is enhanced.
What is the slower effect of insulin that happens 10-15 minutes after stimulation?
Changed phosphorylation states of several enzymes occur acting to accelerate glucose utilization and enhance ATP production.
What are the slower effects of insulin stimulation that take effect several hours/days after initial stimulation?
rates of translocation and slower changes in rates of transcription of DNA can occur serving to further accelerate metabolism
What is the name of the glucose transporter that allows glucose into beta cells at a rate proportional to the blood concentration of glucose?
GLUT2
What is glucose converted to when it first enters a beta cell of the pancreas? What enzyme canalizes this reaction? Why is this reaction particularly important to the release of insulin?
It is converted to glucose-6-phosphate by glucokinse. This step is particularly important as it is the rate limiting step in the series of reactions that stimulate insulin secretion upon glucose entering a beta cell.
What happens to molecules of glucose-6-phosphate in beta cells of the pancreas? What does this cause?
glucose-6-phosphate molecules are oxidized to form ATP this interacts with ATP sensitive K+ channels cause their closure and a subsequent depolarization of the Beta cell membrane.
What is the effect of the depolarization of the membrane of beta cells?
Voltage gated Ca calcium channels are stimulated causing an influx of calcium and stimulating the release of insulin via the fusion of docked insulin containing vessicles with the outer plasma membrane
What amino acids can cause insulin release? How do they do this?
arginine and lysine can be metabolized by beta cells forming ATP causing depolarization leading to insulin release
How do hormones like gastric inhibitory peptide, secretin, gastrin, cholecystokinin and acetylcholine effect insulin release?
They can cause the release of calcium via other signalling pathways, this is so there is an anticipitory release of insulin before meals
How do sulfonyurea drugs stimulate insulin secretion?
They bind to ATP sensitive K+ channels in beta cells causing depolarization
What causes muscle cells to take up more glucose during heavy and moderate exerise?
The contraction process of muscles causes their membranes to become more permeable to glucose
How do muscle cells react if they are made to take up a surplus of glucose by insulin or other means?
They convert it to glycogen for storage
What enzyme in inactivated in order to enhance glucose uptake in the liver? What does this enzyme usually do?
liver phosphatase as it usually breaks down glycogen forming glucose
What liver enzymes are enhanced when spikes in blood glucose occur? What is the effect of this?
glucose kinase as it makes glucose that has diffused into hepatocytes temporarily trapped in liver cells and enzymes that promote glycogen synthesis such as glyocogen synthase
What enzyme in the liver allows glucose recently detached from glycogen to exit liver cells more easily? Why is this?
glucose phophatase allows the easy exit as it removes a phosphate group from the glucose making it more permeable in regards to the hepatocyte membrane
What effect does insulin have on the conversion of excess glucose into fatty acids?
it promotes it
What effect does insulin have on gluconeogenesis?
it inhibits it
Insulin promotes the conversion of glucose into fatty acids what usually happens to these?
They are packaged as triglycerides and transported via very low density lipoproteins to adipose tissue
What is unique about brain cells in regards to response to insulin why does this make maintenance of blood glucose so important?
They have very little response to insulin as their cell membrane are permeable to glucose and only use glucose for energy this means blood glucose must be above a critical level in order for brain cells to have energy
In what pathway is glucose split to pyruvate?
glycolytic
What is the substrace derive from pyruvate from which all fatty acids are synthesised?
Acetyl CoA
When excessive amounts of glucose are being used to make energy in the citrate cycle what ions are released? How do they effect cell metabolism and what is the secondary effect of this?
An excess of citrate and iso ctrate collects within cells this causes the activation of acetyl CoA carboxylase that catalises the reaction that forms malonyl CoA from acetyl CoA which is the first step of fatty acid synthesis
How does insulin promote the uptake of fatty acids in the form of triglycerides into adipose tissue?
insulin activates lipoprotein lipase the the capillary walls of adipose tissue which splits triglycerides into fatty acids so they can enter the adipose cells and then be converted back into triglycerides
What is insulin’s effect on hormone sensitive lipase in adipose cells? What function does this serve?
it inhibits it so triglycerides in adipose cells are not hydrolysed to form fatty acids so fatty acid release from adipose tissue is inhibited
Insulin promotes the uptake of glucose into adipose cells in the same way as it does with muscle cells, what is this glucose used to form that helps fatty acid storage?
It forms alpha-glycerol phosphate, the substance three fatty acids fuse with to form triglcerides
How can insulin deficiency promote atherosclerosis?
In the absence of insulin, hormone sensitive lipase is activated this causes hydrolysis of stored triglycerides releasing these into the blood, the high levels of circulating triglycerides promote the conversion of fatty acids into phospholipids and cholesterol. The release of these promote the growth and atherosclerotic plaques
What causes ketosis in diabetes?
in the absense of insulin excessive amounts of acetoacetic acid are formed in the liver cellsthis can be oxidise forming acetyl CoA or released into the blood where it enters cells and is converted into Acetyl CoA there. If too much is produced however some acetoacetic acid is converted to beta-hydroxybutyric acid and acetone, these are ketone bodies and their presence in high quantities is ketosis
How does insulin promote the synthesis of protein and its storage?
It stimulate the uptake of amino acids into cells, increases the rate of translation of mRNA and over a longer period of time increases the rate of transcription of DNA. It also inhibits catabolism of existing proteins and depresses the rate of gluconeogenesis conserving amino acids that would be used up in this process.
How can insulin lack lead to enhanced urea secretion in urine?
insulin lack causes widespread protein catabolism meaning more amino acids are released into the blood and are used as an energy source. As amino acids being used as a source of energy/ degrading releases urea more use of amino acids leads to high urine urea
What cells type in the islets of langerhans releases glucagon?
alpha cells
What is the main mechanism by which glucagon increase blood glucose?
glucagon actives adenylyl cyclase in the hepatic cell membrane leading to increased levels of cyclic AMP. The cAMP activates protein kinase regulator protein activting protein kinase that in turn activates phosphorylase b kinase. This converts phosphhorylase b to phosphorylase a there by promoting the release of glucose-1-phosphate from glycogen
What are the three main factors that stimulate glucagon release?
raised blood amino acids, low blood glucose and exercise