Role of intestinal hormones in development of pancreatic B cell reactivity of rat fetuses to glucose

The authors study whether intestinal factors are involved in the development of the insulin-releasing capacity of rat fetuses. Insulin in the incubation medium was determined by radioimmunoassay. The experiments with combined incubation of a fragment of fetal pancreas with duodenum taken from adult, newborn, and fetal rats showed that the intestinal factors can restore in vitro the response of the pancreas to glucose loading in encephalectomized fetuses. It is postulated from the results that intestinal hormones may be modulators of the action of high glucose concentrations on insular B cells as early as the prenatal period of development