Is extreme physiology of Burmese pythons relevant to diabetes? (1108.8)

The Burmese python exhibits unprecedented regulatory responses during the digestion of a meal, including a doubling of organ masses, 10 to 40‐fold increases in organ performance, and as much as a 100‐fold increase in circulating hormones and metabolites. Upon the completion of digestion, many of these responses are reversed as organ performance is downregulated for the duration of fasting. The python’s pancreas with feeding doubles in mass, increases the capacity for hydrolase activity as much as 35‐fold, and generates respective 6‐ and 45‐fold increases in circulating levels of glucagon and insulin. Like the python’s heart that experiences hypertrophy with feeding and thus is considered a model for human heart disease, we are exploring the potential clinical relevance of the python’s pancreas to diabetes. We propose that during meal digestion, pythons release circulating molecules that trigger the enhancement of pancreatic function. We therefore explored the responses of mammalian beta cells to the administration of plasma from fed python. When treated with plasma from postprandial pythons, human beta cells increase in volume by 30%. These same treated beta cells, compared to non‐treated cells, experienced a 65% increase in insulin release when exposed to glucose. Whereas postprandial circulating fatty acids apparently trigger cardiac hypertrophy for pythons and rodent models, we suspect that neither peptides nor lipids act as the signal to spark the enhancement of beta cell function. Such a stimulatory molecule(s) within the python’s plasma may potentially have applicability in the clinical treatment of diabetes. Grant Funding Source : National Science Foundation