Figure 1

Insulin immunoreactivity in Hit pancreatic β-cell line. To test the efficacy of taurine in releasing insulin from the pancreatic β-cell line cultures were treated with no taurine (A-C) or 1 mM taurine (D-F) in increasing glucose concentrations. Cultures received either 0 mM glucose (A, D), the subthreshold concentration 1 mM glucose (B, E), or a concentration shown to initiate glucose release (3 mM; C, F). For controls, we chose the 1 mM glucose without taurine treatment, a condition that does not promote insulin release from β-cells. Cultures were immunostained for insulin (red). Blue structures are nuclei counterstained with DAPI. Insulin levels were significantly decreased in all cultures compared to the control cultures (see Figure 3).