Tumoral pancreatic islet cells of the RINm5F line were incubated, in groups of 25x106 cells each, for 120 min at 37 degrees C in media (5. 0 ml) containing either alpha-D-[1,2-13C]glucose pentaacetate (1.7 mM) or both D-[1,2-13C]glucose (1.7 mM) and acetate (8.5 mM). In both cases, the amounts of 13C-enriched metabolites (D-glucose, L-lactate and acetate) and non-enriched metabolites (acetate) recovered in the incubation medium after incubation were close to the initial amount of esterified or non-esterified D-[1, 2-13C]glucose and acetate, respectively. The 13C-enriched metabolites corresponded mainly to double-labelled D-[1, 2-13C]glucose, L-[2,3-13C]lactate and [1,2-13C]acetate. The output of L-[2,3-13C]lactate and [1,2-13C]acetate was about 3-4 times lower in the cells exposed to alpha-D-[1,2-13C]glucose pentaacetate than in those incubated with unesterified D-[1,2-13C]glucose. These findings indicate that, despite extensive hydrolysis of alpha-D-[1, 2-13C]glucose pentaacetate in the RINm5F cells, the hexose moiety of the ester is less efficiently metabolized than unesterified D-[1, 2-13C]glucose tested at the same molar concentration (1.7 mM) in the presence of 8.5 mM acetate. Thus, a higher utilization of the hexose moiety of alpha-D-glucose pentaacetate than that of unesterified D-glucose, as previously documented in isolated pancreatic islets, represents a far-from-universal situation.

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