Diabetes, Vol 37, Issue 2 213-216, Copyright © 1988 by American Diabetes Association
Mechanisms of nitrosourea-induced beta-cell damage. Activation of poly (ADP-ribose) synthetase and cellular distribution
GL Wilson, PC Hartig, NJ Patton and SP LeDoux
Department of Anatomy, University of South Alabama College of Medicine, Mobile 36688.
It has been hypothesized that the critical step in streptozocin
(STZ)-induced beta-cell toxicity is the overactivation of the nuclear
enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) synthetase resulting from DNA strand breaks.
Overactivation of this enzyme leads to a lethal depletion of its substrate,
NAD, in the beta-cell. However, recently it has been shown that a lethal
concentration of STZ and a nontoxic concentration of its nitrosoamide
moiety methylnitrosourea (MNU) damage beta-cell DNA to the same extent and
cause comparable amounts of DNA strand breaks. This study was performed to
determine whether STZ and MNU activate poly(ADP-ribose) synthetase to the
same extent. Monolayer cultures of islet cells from neonatal rats were
exposed to concentrations of MNU and STZ of 10(-3) to 10(-2) M. The results
show that both chemicals caused comparable activation of the enzyme at all
concentrations tested. These data demonstrate that activation of
poly(ADP-ribose) synthetase alone is not the critical step in STZ-induced
beta-cell toxicity. Based on this finding, it appeared possible that STZ
may be selectively sequestered into some critical site in the beta-cell
other than the nucleus. Therefore, studies were initiated with 14C-labeled
STZ and MNU to determine whether STZ might be distributed in the beta-cell
differently than MNU. Total cellular DNA and protein from both RINr (clone
38) and islet cell monolayers were separated on hydroxylapatite columns
after exposure to 14C-labeled chemicals. The amount of label incorporated
into each fraction was determined by liquid scintillation spectrometry, and
the ratio of label incorporated in protein to that in DNA was
determined.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)