title: Effect of glucose on the insulin production and insulin binding of Tetrahymena.
abstract: As the unicellular ciliate, Tetrahymena has insulin receptors and produces insulin itself, which can regulate its glucose metabolism and other cell functions, in the present experiments the feed-back, the effect of glucose on the insulin binding and insulin production was studied. The cells were kept partly in tryptone-yeast medium, partly in Losina salt solution. The duration of treatment (in 0.1, 1.0, 10.0 mg/ml glucose) in the binding study was 10 min, in the hormone production study 30 min. FITC-insulin binding was significantly decreased only by 0.1 mg/ml glucose treatment in medium and by 10 mg/ml glucose in salt. The insulin production was significantly lower only in cells treated with 10 mg/ml glucose in medium. The insulin binding in salt was always higher and the insulin production always lower, than in medium. Earlier results demonstrated that the hormonal system (presence of hormones, receptors and signal pathways) of higher ranked animals can be deduced to a unicellular level, however, the feed-back mechanism is not really present here, only the traces can be observed in these protozoa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Cell and Immunobiology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Eszter
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lajkó
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pállinger
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Csaba
mesh_terms: D003470:Culture Media; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005947:Glucose / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007328:Insulin / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D013768:Tetrahymena / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D007328:Insulin; D005947:Glucose