The role of glycogen phosphorylase in the regulation of glycogenolysis by insulin and glucagon in isolated eel (Anguilla rostrata) hepatocytes

The effects of porcine, scombroid, and salmon insulins, and bovine and anglerfish glucagons on glycogen depletion and glycogen phosphorylase (GPase) activities were examined in freshly isolated American eel (Anguilla rostrata) hepatocytes. Eel liver GPase in crude homogenates was activated (increase in % GPase a) by phosphorylating conditions and was rapidly inactivated (less than 1 h) when a phosphatase inhibitor (fluoride) was absent. Caffeine inhibits, and AMP activates, the b form of GPase consistent with their effects on rat liver GPase. Both mammalian and fish glucagons increased glucose production in eel hepatocytes, but had more ambiguous effects on glycogen levels and GPase activities. The magnitude of bovine glucagon effects were dependent on the initial glycogen content of the cells; only at glycogen concentrations less than approximately 70 μmoles.g⁻¹ did glucagon significantly increase % GPase a. Anglerfish glucagon significantly increased cyclic AMP (cAMP) concentrations by 90% at 10⁻⁷ M, but had no effects at 10⁻⁹ M and 10⁻⁸ M. Scombroid and salmon insulins maintained hepatocyte glycogen concentrations and decreased glucose production, with these effects more pronounced at low (10⁻⁹ to 10⁻⁸ M) rather than high (10⁻⁷ M) hormone concentrations. Porcine and salmon insulins decreased total GPase and % GPase a activities, and salmon insulin decreased CAMP levels, but only at 10⁻⁸ M (by 44%). Glycogen is, therefore, depleted by glucagon and maintained by insulin in freshly isolated American eel hepatocytes, and these changes are accomplished, at least in part, by changes in the activities of GPase. Changes in cAMP do not explain all of the observed hormone effects.