Endocrinology, Vol 121, 323-331, Copyright © 1987 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

Sympathetic nerve stimulation versus pancreatic norepinephrine infusion in the dog: 1). Effects on basal release of insulin and glucagon

B Ahren, RC Veith and GJ Taborsky Jr

We investigated whether pancreatic norepinephrine (NE) infusions could reproduce the inhibition of insulin secretion and the stimulation of glucagon secretion observed during sympathetic nerve stimulation in halothane-anesthetized dogs. Three minutes of stimulating the sympathetic nerves (8 Hz, 1 msec, 10 mA, n = 6) surrounding the pancreatic artery decreased both the blood flow in the superior pancreatic vein (SPV) (delta = -1.7 +/- 0.6 ml/min, P less than 0.05) and the basal pancreatic output of immunoreactive insulin (IRI) (delta = -79 +/- 5%, P less than 0.001). SPV levels of NE increased by 683 +/- 177 pg/ml (P less than 0.02). Infusion of NE into the superior pancreatic artery at the low dose of 12 ng/min (n = 6) reproduced this increase of SPV levels of NE (delta = +740 +/- 130 pg/ml; P less than 0.01) and caused a small reduction of SPV blood flow (delta = -1.0 +/- 0.4 ml/min, P less than 0.05), but did not change pancreatic IRI (delta = -26 +/- 16%, NS). The medium dose of NE (120 ng/min, n = 6) reproduced the nerve stimulation-induced decrease of SPV blood flow (delta = -1.5 +/- 0.2 ml/min; P less than 0.01) and increased the SPV NE levels by 6,306 +/- 1,839 pg/ml (P less than 0.02), yet did not decrease pancreatic IRI output (delta = +62 +/- 49%, NS). The high dose of NE (1,200 ng/min, n = 6) produced an extreme increment of SPV NE levels (delta = +180,000 +/- 44,000 pg/ml, P less than 0.001) and a much larger reduction of SPV blood flow (delta = -3.7 +/- 0.7 ml/min, P less than 0.01) than did nerve stimulation, yet still did not inhibit insulin output (delta = -13 +/- 46%, NS). Ten minutes of sympathetic nerve stimulation increased the pancreatic output of immunoreactive glucagon (IRG) by 1435 +/- 419 pg/min (P less than 0.02). Pancreatic IRG output increased as well during infusion of NE for 10 min at both 12 ng/min (by 575 +/- 205 pg/min, P less than 0.05) and 120 ng/min (by 718 +/- 231 pg/min, P less than 0.05). In marked contrast, during infusion of NE at 1200 ng/min, pancreatic IRG output decreased (by 400 +/- 190 pg/min, P less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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