Background and Objective: Capparis spinosa L. belongs to the Capparaceae family for which biological roles such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic effects have been reported. Some active chemical groups including flavonoids, phenols, alkaloids, tannins, and minerals have been detected in these plants [Sci Rew1] . This study aimed to extract the C. spinosa alcoholic extract from...

Yields and function of isolated islets vary considerably in spite of the introduction of new or improved methods for isolation. In most studies, these variations have been attributed to inadequacies of the applied collagenase preparations. However, when we retrospectively analyzed our rat islet isolations, we found large variations in yield and function in spite of application of identical coll...

The isolation of pancreatic islets from collagenase-digested Wistar rat pancreas was shown by the sedimentation method at a unit gravity using Percoll solution with a density of 1.041 g/ml. The density of digested exocrine tissues was in the range of 1.013-1.041 g/ml, while that of purely isolated islets was in the narrow range of 1.066-1.075 g/ml. More than a hundred islets were obtained freel...

A method is described for separation of polyribosomes from as few as 25 isolated Islets of Langerhans, representing about 250 mug of pancreatic tissue. Islets are labeled with [(3)H]leucine and polysomes are isolated with liver polyribosomes, which serve as carrier and inhibitor of ribonuclease activity. Islets incubated at 37 degrees C for 45 min in 15.5 mM glucose, then pulsed with [(3)H]leuc...

Reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress impair β-cell function and reduce insulin secretion. It has been shown that progesterone and cilostazol possess antioxidant properties. The present study was aimed to investigate in-vitro pretreatment effect of progesterone and cilostazol on insulin secretion as well as their protective effects against hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress in pa...

BACKGROUND Amiloride derivatives, commonly used for their diuretic and antihypertensive properties, can also cause a sustained but reversible decrease of intracellular pH (pHi). Using dimethyl amiloride (DMA) on normal rodent pancreatic islets, we previously demonstrated the critical influence of islet pHi on insulin secretion. Nutrient-stimulated insulin secretion (NSIS) requires a specific pH...

CONTEXT Beta-cells have a limited replicative capacity; hence, there is always a quest for sources of islet regeneration to compensate for the loss of functional beta-cells in diabetes. OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis of whether intra islet precursor cells of islets isolated from a diabetic pancreas and in vitro streptozotocin treated islets are capable of giving rise to neoislets. INTERVE...

Objectives Arsenic, a toxic metal in drinking water and butyric acid (BA) is a free fatty acid found in many foods. These two can induce oxidative stress in some tissues. The present study investigated the protective effect of metformin against toxicity induced by Arsenic (As) and BA in isolated mice liver mitochondria and pancreatic islets. Materials and Methods In this study, liver mitochon...

In pancreatic β-cells, glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) modulates insulin secretion, although its function regarding specific secretagogues is unclear. This study investigated the role of GDH using a β-cell-specific GDH knockout mouse model, called βGlud1(-/-). The absence of GDH in islets isolated from βGlud1(-/-) mice resulted in abrogation of insulin release evoked by glutamine combined with 2-...