Valuable alkaloids content is preserved in Camptotheca acuminata and Morus alba grown in trace elements contaminated soil.

Phytoextraction of trace elements (TE) using woody species is an economically challenging soil remediation approach because of the long time needed. Yet, some trees contain alkaloids that can be exploited along structural components to enhance biomass value. As alkaloids are thought to be involved in plant defence mechanisms, we hypothesized that potentially hostile phytoremediation conditions could increase their level. Camptothecin in Camptotheca acuminata and 1-deoxynojirimycin in Morus alba were measured from trees grown in a field in presence of Cu, Pb and Zn all together, and from M. alba grown in a greenhouse in presence of Cd or other abiotic stressors (NaCl and bending). The trees did not extract TE in the field, but M. alba stems accumulated Cd in the greenhouse experiment, with no consequence on stomatal conductance and leaves pigments concentration. Camptothecin and 1-deoxynojirimycin concentrations were preserved under all experimental conditions, as was biomass yield, and phenolics were slightly increased in M. alba exposed to TE. This study provides evidence that valuable and persistent alkaloids and phenolics can be extracted from trees facing phytoremediation-associated stresses, without a negative impact on their quantity and on biomass yield. Such products could generate a sustainable stream of revenues during phytoremediation.

There is scarce data on tree alkaloid content and scarcer data on how it is affected by exposure to trace elements in a phytoremediation context. We provide evidence that the content of two specific alkaloids is not altered in Morus alba and Camptotheca acuminata exposed to moderate to elevated levels of contaminating trace elements. The manuscript introduces the use of M. alba for phytoremediation in the Americas and is the first to propose the use of C. acuminata on trace element contaminated sites to produce camptothecin, a valuable anticancer alkaloid.

Identification of the signals for glucose-induced insulin secretion in INS1 (832/13) ß-cells using metformin-induced metabolic deceleration as a model.

Metabolic deceleration in pancreatic ß-cells is associated with inhibition of glucose-induced insulin secretion (GIIS), but only in the presence of intermediate/submaximal glucose concentrations. Here, we used acute metformin treatment as a tool to induce metabolic deceleration in INS1 (832/13) ß-cells, with the goal of identifying key pathways and metabolites involved in GIIS. Metabolites and pathways previously implicated as signals for GIIS were measured in the cells at 2-25 mm glucose, with or without 5 mm metformin. We defined three criteria to identify candidate signals: 1) glucose-responsiveness, 2) sensitivity to metformin-induced inhibition of the glucose effect at intermediate glucose concentrations, and 3) alleviation of metformin inhibition by elevated glucose concentrations. Despite the lack of recovery from metformin-induced impairment of mitochondrial energy metabolism (glucose oxidation, O2 consumption, and ATP production), insulin secretion was almost completely restored at elevated glucose concentrations. Meeting the criteria for candidates involved in promoting GIIS were the following metabolic indicators and metabolites: cytosolic NAD+/NADH ratio (inferred from the dihydroxyacetone phosphate:glycerol-3-phosphate ratio), mitochondrial membrane potential, ADP, Ca2+, 1-monoacylglycerol, diacylglycerol, malonyl-CoA, and HMG-CoA. On the contrary, most of the purine and nicotinamide nucleotides, acetoacetyl-CoA, H2O2, reduced glutathione, and 2-monoacylglycerol were not glucose-responsive. Overall these results underscore the significance of mitochondrial energy metabolism-independent signals in GIIS regulation; in particular, the candidate lipid signaling molecules 1-monoacylglycerol, diacylglycerol, and malonyl-CoA; the predominance of KATP/Ca2+ signaling control by low ADP·Mg2+ rather than by high ATP levels; and a role for a more oxidized state (NAD+/NADH) in the cytosol during GIIS that favors high glycolysis rates.

Metabolic fate of glucose and candidate signaling and excess-fuel detoxification pathways in pancreatic ß-cells.

Glucose metabolism promotes insulin secretion in ß-cells via metabolic coupling factors that are incompletely defined. Moreover, chronically elevated glucose causes ß-cell dysfunction, but little is known about how cells handle excess fuels to avoid toxicity. Here we sought to determine which among the candidate pathways and coupling factors best correlates with glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS), define the fate of glucose in the ß-cell, and identify pathways possibly involved in excess-fuel detoxification. We exposed isolated rat islets for 1 h to increasing glucose concentrations and measured various pathways and metabolites. Glucose oxidation, oxygen consumption, and ATP production correlated well with GSIS and saturated at 16 mm glucose. However, glucose utilization, glycerol release, triglyceride and glycogen contents, free fatty acid (FFA) content and release, and cholesterol and cholesterol esters increased linearly up to 25 mm glucose. Besides being oxidized, glucose was mainly metabolized via glycerol production and release and lipid synthesis (particularly FFA, triglycerides, and cholesterol), whereas glycogen production was comparatively low. Using targeted metabolomics in INS-1(832/13) cells, we found that several metabolites correlated well with GSIS, in particular some Krebs cycle intermediates, malonyl-CoA, and lower ADP levels. Glucose dose-dependently increased the dihydroxyacetone phosphate/glycerol 3-phosphate ratio in INS-1(832/13) cells, indicating a more oxidized state of NAD in the cytosol upon glucose stimulation. Overall, the data support a role for accelerated oxidative mitochondrial metabolism, anaplerosis, and malonyl-CoA/lipid signaling in ß-cell metabolic signaling and suggest that a decrease in ADP levels is important in GSIS. The results also suggest that excess-fuel detoxification pathways in ß-cells possibly comprise glycerol and FFA formation and release extracellularly and the diversion of glucose carbons to triglycerides and cholesterol esters.

Pancreatic ß-Cell Dysfunction in Diet-Induced Obese Mice: Roles of AMP-Kinase, Protein Kinase Cε, Mitochondrial and Cholesterol Metabolism, and Alterations in Gene Expression.

Diet induced obese (DIO) mice can be stratified according to their weight gain in response to high fat diet as low responders (LDR) and high responders (HDR). This allows the study of ß-cell failure and the transitions to prediabetes (LDR) and early diabetes (HDR). C57BL/6N mice were fed for 8 weeks with a normal chow diet (ND) or a high fat diet and stratified as LDR and HDR. Freshly isolated islets from ND, LDR and HDR mice were studied ex-vivo for mitochondrial metabolism, AMPK activity and signalling, the expression and activity of key enzymes of energy metabolism, cholesterol synthesis, and mRNA profiling. Severely compromised glucose-induced insulin secretion in HDR islets, as compared to ND and LDR islets, was associated with suppressed AMP-kinase activity. HDR islets also showed reduced acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity and enhanced activity of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase, which led respectively to elevated fatty acid oxidation and increased cholesterol biosynthesis. HDR islets also displayed mitochondrial membrane hyperpolarization and reduced ATP turnover in the presence of elevated glucose. Expression of protein kinase Cε, which reduces both lipolysis and production of signals for insulin secretion, was elevated in DIO islets. Genes whose expression increased or decreased by more than 1.2-fold were minor between LDR and ND islets (17 differentially expressed), but were prominent between HDR and ND islets (1508 differentially expressed). In HDR islets, particularly affected genes were related to cell cycle and proliferation, AMPK signaling, mitochondrial metabolism and cholesterol metabolism. In conclusion, chronically reduced AMPK activity, mitochondrial dysfunction, elevated cholesterol biosynthesis in islets, and substantial alterations in gene expression accompany ß-cell failure in HDR islets. The ß-cell compensation process in the prediabetic state (LDR) is largely independent of transcriptional adaptive changes, whereas the transition to early diabetes (HDR) is associated with major alterations in gene expression.

Identification of a mammalian glycerol-3-phosphate phosphatase: Role in metabolism and signaling in pancreatic ß-cells and hepatocytes.

Obesity, and the associated disturbed glycerolipid/fatty acid (GL/FA) cycle, contribute to insulin resistance, islet ß-cell failure, and type 2 diabetes. Flux through the GL/FA cycle is regulated by the availability of glycerol-3-phosphate (Gro3P) and fatty acyl-CoA. We describe here a mammalian Gro3P phosphatase (G3PP), which was not known to exist in mammalian cells, that can directly hydrolyze Gro3P to glycerol. We identified that mammalian phosphoglycolate phosphatase, with an uncertain function, acts in fact as a G3PP. We found that G3PP, by controlling Gro3P levels, regulates glycolysis and glucose oxidation, cellular redox and ATP production, gluconeogenesis, glycerolipid synthesis, and fatty acid oxidation in pancreatic islet ß-cells and hepatocytes, and that glucose stimulated insulin secretion and the response to metabolic stress, e.g., glucolipotoxicity, in ß-cells. In vivo overexpression of G3PP in rat liver lowers body weight gain and hepatic glucose production from glycerol and elevates plasma HDL levels. G3PP is expressed at various levels in different tissues, and its expression varies according to the nutritional state in some tissues. As Gro3P lies at the crossroads of glucose, lipid, and energy metabolism, control of its availability by G3PP adds a key level of metabolic regulation in mammalian cells, and G3PP offers a potential target for type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic disorders.

Simplified assays of lipolysis enzymes for drug discovery and specificity assessment of known inhibitors.

Lipids are used as cellular building blocks and condensed energy stores and also act as signaling molecules. The glycerolipid/ fatty acid cycle, encompassing lipolysis and lipogenesis, generates many lipid signals. Reliable procedures are not available for measuring activities of several lipolytic enzymes for the purposes of drug screening, and this resulted in questionable selectivity of various known lipase inhibitors. We now describe simple assays for lipolytic enzymes, including adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), hormone sensitive lipase (HSL), sn-1-diacylglycerol lipase (DAGL), monoacylglycerol lipase, α/ß-hydrolase domain 6, and carboxylesterase 1 (CES1) using recombinant human and mouse enzymes either in cell extracts or using purified enzymes. We observed that many of the reported inhibitors lack specificity. Thus, Cay10499 (HSL inhibitor) and RHC20867 (DAGL inhibitor) also inhibit other lipases. Marked differences in the inhibitor sensitivities of human ATGL and HSL compared with the corresponding mouse enzymes was noticed. Thus, ATGListatin inhibited mouse ATGL but not human ATGL, and the HSL inhibitors WWL11 and Compound 13f were effective against mouse enzyme but much less potent against human enzyme. Many of these lipase inhibitors also inhibited human CES1. Results describe reliable assays for measuring lipase activities that are amenable for drug screening and also caution about the specificity of the many earlier described lipase inhibitors.

Pioglitazone acutely reduces energy metabolism and insulin secretion in rats.

Our objective was to determine if the insulin-sensitizing drug pioglitazone acutely reduces insulin secretion and causes metabolic deceleration in vivo independently of change in insulin sensitivity. We assessed glucose homeostasis by hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic and hyperglycemic clamp studies and energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry and biotelemetry in male Wistar and obese hyperinsulinemic Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats 45 min after a single oral dose of pioglitazone (30 mg/kg). In vivo insulin secretion during clamped hyperglycemia was reduced in both Wistar and ZDF rats after pioglitazone administration. Insulin clearance was slightly increased in Wistar but not in ZDF rats. Insulin sensitivity in Wistar rats assessed by the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp was minimally affected by pioglitazone at this early time point. Pioglitazone also reduced energy expenditure in Wistar rats without altering respiratory exchange ratio or core body temperature. Glucose-induced insulin secretion (GIIS) and oxygen consumption were reduced by pioglitazone in isolated islets and INS832/13 cells. In conclusion, pioglitazone acutely induces whole-body metabolic slowing down and reduces GIIS, the latter being largely independent of the insulin-sensitizing action of the drug. The results suggest that pioglitazone has direct metabolic deceleration effects on the ß-cell that may contribute to its capacity to lower insulinemia and antidiabetic action.

Voluntary running exercise prevents ß-cell failure in susceptible islets of the Zucker diabetic fatty rat.

Physical activity improves glycemic control in type 2 diabetes (T2D), but its contribution to preserving ß-cell function is uncertain. We evaluated the role of physical activity on ß-cell secretory function and glycerolipid/fatty acid (GL/FA) cycling in male Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats. Six-week-old ZDF rats engaged in voluntary running for 6 wk (ZDF-A). Inactive Zucker lean and ZDF (ZDF-I) rats served as controls. ZDF-I rats displayed progressive hyperglycemia with ß-cell failure evidenced by falling insulinemia and reduced insulin secretion to oral glucose. Isolated ZDF-I rat islets showed reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion expressed per islet and per islet protein. They were also characterized by loss of the glucose regulation of fatty acid oxidation and GL/FA cycling, reduced mRNA expression of key ß-cell genes, and severe reduction of insulin stores. Physical activity prevented diabetes in ZDF rats through sustaining ß-cell compensation to insulin resistance shown in vivo and in vitro. Surprisingly, ZDF-A islets had persistent defects in fatty acid oxidation, GL/FA cycling, and ß-cell gene expression. ZDF-A islets, however, had preserved islet insulin mRNA and insulin stores compared with ZDF-I rats. Physical activity did not prevent hyperphagia, dyslipidemia, or obesity in ZDF rats. In conclusion, islets of ZDF rats have a susceptibility to failure that is possibly due to altered ß-cell fatty acid metabolism. Depletion of pancreatic islet insulin stores is a major contributor to islet failure in this T2D model, preventable by physical activity.

Beta-cell failure in diet-induced obese mice stratified according to body weight gain: secretory dysfunction and altered islet lipid metabolism without steatosis or reduced beta-cell mass.

OBJECTIVE: C57Bl/6 mice develop obesity and mild hyperglycemia when fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Although diet-induced obesity (DIO) is a widely studied model of type 2 diabetes, little is known about beta-cell failure in these mice. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: DIO mice were separated in two groups according to body weight gain: low- and high-HFD responders (LDR and HDR). We examined whether mild hyperglycemia in HDR mice is due to reduced beta-cell mass or function and studied islet metabolism and signaling. RESULTS: HDR mice were more obese, hyperinsulinemic, insulin resistant, and hyperglycemic and showed a more altered plasma lipid profile than LDR. LDR mice largely compensated insulin resistance, whereas HDR showed perturbed glucose homeostasis. Neither LDR nor HDR mice showed reduced beta-cell mass, altered islet glucose metabolism, and triglyceride deposition. Insulin secretion in response to glucose, KCl, and arginine was impaired in LDR and almost abolished in HDR islets. Palmitate partially restored glucose- and KCl-stimulated secretion. The glucose-induced rise in ATP was reduced in both DIO groups, and the glucose-induced rise in Ca(2+) was reduced in HDR islets relatively to LDR. Glucose-stimulated lipolysis was decreased in LDR and HDR islets, whereas fat oxidation was increased in HDR islets only. Fatty acid esterification processes were markedly diminished, and free cholesterol accumulated in HDR islets. CONCLUSIONS: beta-Cell failure in HDR mice is not due to reduced beta-cell mass and glucose metabolism or steatosis but to a secretory dysfunction that is possibly due to altered ATP/Ca(2+) and lipid signaling, as well as free cholesterol deposition.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 induced signaling and insulin secretion do not drive fuel and energy metabolism in primary rodent pancreatic beta-cells.

BACKGROUND: Glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and its analogue exendin-4 (Ex-4) enhance glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) and activate various signaling pathways in pancreatic beta-cells, in particular cAMP, Ca(2+) and protein kinase-B (PKB/Akt). In many cells these signals activate intermediary metabolism. However, it is not clear whether the acute amplification of GSIS by GLP-1 involves in part metabolic alterations and the production of metabolic coupling factors. METHODOLOGY/PRINICIPAL FINDINGS: GLP-1 or Ex-4 at high glucose caused release (approximately 20%) of the total rat islet insulin content over 1 h. While both GLP-1 and Ex-4 markedly potentiated GSIS in isolated rat and mouse islets, neither had an effect on beta-cell fuel and energy metabolism over a 5 min to 3 h time period. GLP-1 activated PKB without changing glucose usage and oxidation, fatty acid oxidation, lipolysis or esterification into various lipids in rat islets. Ex-4 caused a rise in [Ca(2+)](i) and cAMP but did not enhance energy utilization, as neither oxygen consumption nor mitochondrial ATP levels were altered. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results indicate that GLP-1 barely affects beta-cell intermediary metabolism and that metabolic signaling does not significantly contribute to GLP-1 potentiation of GSIS. The data also indicate that insulin secretion is a minor energy consuming process in the beta-cell, and that the beta-cell is different from most cell types in that its metabolic activation appears to be primarily governed by a "push" (fuel substrate driven) process, rather than a "pull" mechanism secondary to enhanced insulin release as well as to Ca(2+), cAMP and PKB signaling.

Pioglitazone acutely reduces insulin secretion and causes metabolic deceleration of the pancreatic beta-cell at submaximal glucose concentrations.

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) have beneficial effects on glucose homeostasis via enhancement of insulin sensitivity and preservation of beta-cell function. How TZDs preserve beta-cells is uncertain, but it might involve direct effects via both peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma-dependent and -independent pathways. To gain insight into the independent pathway(s), we assessed the effects of short-term (

Adipose triglyceride lipase is implicated in fuel- and non-fuel-stimulated insulin secretion.

Reduced lipolysis in hormone-sensitive lipase-deficient mice is associated with impaired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS), suggesting that endogenous beta-cell lipid stores provide signaling molecules for insulin release. Measurements of lipolysis and triglyceride (TG) lipase activity in islets from HSL(-/-) mice indicated the presence of other TG lipase(s) in the beta-cell. Using real time-quantitative PCR, adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) was found to be the most abundant TG lipase in rat islets and INS832/13 cells. To assess its role in insulin secretion, ATGL expression was decreased in INS832/13 cells (ATGL-knockdown (KD)) by small hairpin RNA. ATGL-KD increased the esterification of free fatty acid (FFA) into TG. ATGL-KD cells showed decreased glucose- or Gln + Leu-induced insulin release, as well as reduced response to KCl or palmitate at high, but not low, glucose. The K(ATP)-independent/amplification pathway of GSIS was considerably reduced in ATGL-KD cells. ATGL(-/-) mice were hypoinsulinemic and hypoglycemic and showed decreased plasma TG and FFAs. A hyperglycemic clamp revealed increased insulin sensitivity and decreased GSIS and arginine-induced insulin secretion in ATGL(-/-) mice. Accordingly, isolated islets from ATGL(-/-) mice showed reduced insulin secretion in response to glucose, glucose + palmitate, and KCl. Islet TG content and FFA esterification into TG were increased by 2-fold in ATGL(-/-) islets, but glucose usage and oxidation were unaltered. The results demonstrate the importance of ATGL and intracellular lipid signaling for fuel- and non-fuel-induced insulin secretion.

Obese mice lacking inducible nitric oxide synthase are sensitized to the metabolic actions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma agonism.

OBJECTIVE: Synthetic ligands for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) improve insulin sensitivity in obesity, but it is still unclear whether inflammatory signals modulate their metabolic actions. In this study, we tested whether targeted disruption of inducible nitric oxide (NO) synthase (iNOS), a key inflammatory mediator in obesity, modulates the metabolic effects of rosiglitazone in obese mice. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: iNOS(-/-) and iNOS(+/+) were subjected to a high-fat diet or standard diet for 18 weeks and were then treated with rosiglitazone for 2 weeks. Whole-body insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance were determined and metabolic tissues harvested to assess activation of insulin and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathways and the levels of inflammatory mediators. RESULTS: Rosiglitazone was found to similarly improve whole-body insulin sensitivity and insulin signaling to Akt/PKB in skeletal muscle of obese iNOS(-/-) and obese iNOS(+/+) mice. However, rosiglitazone further improved glucose tolerance and liver insulin signaling only in obese mice lacking iNOS. This genotype-specific effect of rosiglitazone on glucose tolerance was linked to a markedly increased ability of the drug to raise plasma adiponectin levels. Accordingly, rosiglitazone increased AMPK activation in muscle and liver only in obese iNOS(-/-) mice. PPAR-gamma transcriptional activity was increased in adipose tissue of iNOS(-/-) mice. Conversely, treatment of 3T3-L1 adipocytes with a NO donor blunted PPAR-gamma activity. CONCLUSIONS: Our results identify the iNOS/NO pathway as a critical modulator of PPAR-gamma activation and circulating adiponectin levels and show that invalidation of this key inflammatory mediator improves the efficacy of PPAR-gamma agonism in an animal model of obesity and insulin resistance.

Circulating lipids are lowered but pancreatic islet lipid metabolism and insulin secretion are unaltered in exercise-trained female rats.

Deteriorating islet beta-cell function is key in the progression of an impaired glucose tolerance state to overt type 2 diabetes (T2D), a transition that can be delayed by exercise. We have previously shown that trained rats are protected from heart ischemia-reperfusion injury in correlation with an increase in cardiac tissue fatty-acid oxidation. This trained metabolic phenotype, if induced in the islet, could also prevent beta-cell failure in the pathogenesis of T2D. To assess the effect of training on islet lipid metabolism and insulin secretion, female Sprague-Dawley rats were exercised on a treadmill for 90 min/d, 4 d/week, for 10 weeks. Islet fatty-acid oxidation, the expression of key lipid metabolism genes, and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion were determined in freshly isolated islets from trained and sedentary control rats after a 48 h rest period from the last exercise. Although this moderate training reduced plasma glycerol, free fatty acids, and triglyceride levels by about 40%, consistent with reduced lipolysis from adipose tissue, it did not alter islet fatty-acid oxidation, nor the islet expression of key transcription factors and enzymes of lipid metabolism. The training also had no effect on glucose-stimulated insulin secretion or its amplification by free fatty acids. In summary, chronic exercise training did not cause an intrinsic change in islet lipid metabolism. Training did, however, substantially reduce the exposure of islets to exogenous lipid, thereby providing a potential mechanism by which exercise can prevent islet beta-cell failure leading to T2D.