Interleukin 10 inhibits insulin release from and nitric oxide production in rat pancreatic islets

Laffranchi R, Spinas GA. Interleukin 10 inhibits insulin release from and nitric oxide production in rat pancreatic islets. Eur J Endocrinol 1996;135:374–8. ISSN 0804–4643 Interleukin 10 was found to prevent cytokine-induced nitric oxide production in murine macrophages. Because, in rat islets, interleukin 1β induces β-cell dysfunction, mainly due to overproduction of nitric oxide, we studied if this effect could be counteracted by interleukin 10. Rat pancreatic islets were cultured for 24 h in the presence or absence of 0.02–20 ng/ml recombinant human interleukin 10. Interleukin 10 dose-dependently inhibited insulin secretion with maximal inhibition (27 ±4%, p < 0.05) at 2 ng/ml without impairment of islet cell viability. However, incubation of pancreatic islets with interleukin 10 resulted in a 61.5% decrease of nitric oxide production. Co-incubation of islets with interleukin 10 (2 ng/ml) and recombinant human interleukin 1β (0.15 ng/ml) resulted in a more pronounced suppression of basal insulin release than with interleukin 1β alone (55 ± 3.6% vs 44 ± 3.6% with interleukin 1β alone, p < 0.05) but did not reduce interleukin 1β-stimulated NO production or reverse the effect of interleukin 1β on cell viability. Thus, in pancreatic islets interleukin 10 is not capable of counteracting the interleukin 1β-induced β-cell dysfunction, but rather enhances the inhibitory effect of interleukin 1β by a different mechanism. Renato Laffranchi, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital, Rämistrasse 100, CH-8091 Zürich, Switzerland