Screening populations of individual cells for secretory heterogeneity

Many common metabolic and neurological disorders are related to defective regulation of exocytosis at the level of single cells. In exocytosis, vesicles containing the secretory product of a given cell type fuse with the plasma membrane allowing release of the vesicular contents into the extracellular environment where the physiological action can be exerted. The typical secretory vesicle contains between 0.15 and 10 attomoles of material that is released on a millisecond timescale. Hence, detection of this process presents several chemical and analytical challenges. In this work, we utilize the native ATP, stored at high concentrations within the secretory vesicles of most neuroendocrine cells and co-released during exocytosis and during cell lysis, as a universal tracer of cellular secretion events. Organisms studied include pancreatic islets, mast cells, and Escherischia coli. Cellular processes investigated include exocytotic release, stimulated cell lysis, and programmed cell lysis.