Relevance of Lactate Dehydrogenase Activity to the Control of Oxidative Glycolysis in Pancreatic Islet B-Cells

The activities of hexokinase isoenzymes, lactate dehydrogenase, cytosolic NAD-linked glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, mitochondrial FAD-linked glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, and glutamate dehydrogenase were measured in homogenates of rat purified pancreatic B and non-B islet cells. In B cell homogenates, the maximal activity of hexokinase and glucokinase was one to two orders of magnitude lower than that of lactate dehydrogenase. The activity of the mitochondrial FAD-linked glycerophosphate dehydrogenase was also much lower than that of the cytosolic NAD-linked glycerophosphate dehydrogenase. A comparable hierarchy in the activity of these enzymes was observed in non-B islet cells. These findings reinforce the view that the preferential stimulation of oxidative glycolysis observed in insulin-producing cells, when exposed to high concentrations ofD-glucose, is attributable to a Ca2+-induced activation of the mitochondrial FAD-linked glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, rather than to saturation of the catalytic activity of lactate dehydrogenase.