Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate how an acute increase in functional demand for insulin release affected islet blood perfusion in anesthetized rats.
Methods: We measured total pancreatic and islet blood flow with differently colored microspheres before and 30 minutes after a 50% partial pancreatectomy.
Results: The blood glucose concentrations increased in the animals subjected to partial pancreatectomy. The fact that serum insulin concentrations remained unaffected implies that the islets in fact doubled their output of insulin to maintain the same degree of insulinemia. Still, pancreatic islet blood flow was the same as in the sham-operated animals. Likewise, the number of perfused pancreatic islets and the flow distribution between individual islets were not influenced by the partial pancreatectomy.
Conclusions: We conclude that the acute demand for insulin secretion induced by a 50% partial pancreatectomy is not necessarily associated with an acute increase in islet blood perfusion. These findings suggest that basal islet blood flow is high enough to allow for short-term changes in hormone release without simultaneous changes in blood perfusion.