Freinkel et al (1974) demonstrated that isolated perifused rat pancreatic islets reproduceably release up to 50% of their total inorganic phosphate when the concentration of glucose in the perifusion medium is raised.Using a slight modification of the Libanati and Tandler (1969) method for localising inorganic phosphate by fixation-precipitation with glutaraldehyde-lead acetate we can demonstrate there is a significant deposition of lead phosphate (identified by energy dispersive electron microscope microanalysis) at or on the plasmalemma of the B cell of the islets (Fig 1, 3). Islets after incubation in high glucose show very little precipitate at this or any other site (Fig 2). At higher magnification the precipitate seems to be intracellular (Fig 4) but since any use of osmium or uranyl acetate to increase membrane contrast removes the precipitate of lead phosphate it has not been possible to verify this as yet.
