RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Materials. Human recombinant IL-1␤ (ED 50 5-10 pg/ml, cat. no. 201-LB) was obtained from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN). Sodium salicylate was obtained from Sigma Chemicals (St. Louis, MO). Pertussis toxin was obtained from Cayman Chemicals (Ann Arbor, MI). NS-398, PGE 2 , and AH-6809 were obtained from Biomol (Plymouth Meeting, PA). SC-236 was a gift from Monsanto-Searle (St. Louis, MO). Pancreatic islet isolation. Pancreata from male Wistar rats were infused with 10

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... ml of a 0.09% collagenase type XI (Sigma), 1% fetal bovine serum (FBS), and 2 units/ml RQ1 DNase (Promega, Madison, WI) solution in Medium 199 (Sigma). After surgical removal, the pancreata were incubated in the collagenase solution at 37°C. Undigested tissue was removed using a 500-m screen, and the recovered tissue was washed twice with ice-cold Hank's balanced salt solution followed by centrifugation at 250g for 4 min. The pellet was resuspended in 2 ml of 35% BSA, and islets were separated using a Histopaque (Sigma) gradient.