The influence of glucose on the beta-cell handling of Ca2+ was studied in pancreatic islets isolated from ob/ob mice. Glucose had both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on the washout of radioactivity from islets preloaded with 45Ca. Although the phenomenon of stimulation may be essentially associated with an increased turnover of 45Ca incorporated in response to glucose, the inhibitory effect might merely reflect a lowering of Ca2+ in the cytoplasm following from its accumulation into secretory granules and mitochondria. It is suggested that the Ca2+ uptake by the granules is mediated by an ATP-dependent proton gradient and that these organelles serve as a regulator of the cytoplasmic Ca2+ involved in stimulus-secretion coupling. Alterations in the beta-cell handling of Ca2+ may not only explain the role of glucose as an initiator of insulin release, but also the potentiation by cAMP of the action of glucose. The latter effect can tentatively be ascribed to an increase of cytoplasmic Ca2+ following cAMP-induced inhibition of the net Ca2+ uptake by mitochondria.