Studies in Vivo and in Vitro on Chemically-induced Primary Islet Cell Tumours and Non-tumour Endocrine Pancreatic Tissue

Rat islet cell tumours induced by injection of streptozotocin and nicotinamide have been studied in vivo and after the establishment of monolayer cultures of tumour cells. During an intravenous glucose tolerance test, tumour-bearing rats had increased release of immunoreactive insulin, with a high proportion of proinsulin, as well as accelerated glucose disposal relative to control rats. The tumours were rich in immunoreactive insulin and somatostatin, poor in glucagon. Non-tumour pancreatic tissue or isolated islets contained 10% or less of the corresponding normal amounts of insulin whereas the islet content of somatostatin was unchanged and that of glucagon increased. This is best interpreted as a selective suppression of non-tumour B cells, further supported by the observation that the initially reduced insulin release and content of non-tumour islets were partially restored after 2 days in tissue culture. In monolayer culture, tumour cells maintained insulin production and acute responsiveness to glucose for prolonged periods. There was no sign of cell proliferation. It is concluded that primary, chemically-induced insulin-producing pancreatic islet cell tumours retain several features characteristic to normal B cells and continue to influence glucose homeostasis in vivo.