Endocrine Abstracts

Glucocorticoids act directly on pancreatic islets suppressing insulin secretion from the beta cells through a genomic mechanism of slow onset. We present here data on immediate actions of dexamethasone on two models of insulin secretion: RINm5F and INS-1 beta cell lines. Under normal glucose concentrations, dexamethasone rapidly (within minutes) decreased insulin secretion about 30%. Under hypoglycaemic conditions (glucose reduced to 50% for 1 hour) dexamethasone increased ins...