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Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 2009, p. 3219-3228, Vol. 29, No. 11
0270-7306/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/MCB.01489-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Kohjiro Ueki,1,2,
Jonathon N. Winnay,1
Takahashi Kadowaki,2 and
Rohit N. Kulkarni1*
Joslin Diabetes Center and Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts,1 Department of Metabolic Diseases, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan2
Received 23 September 2008/ Returned for modification 29 October 2008/ Accepted 20 February 2009
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Examination of the independent effects of glucose versus insulin on β-cell function in vivo is limited by a lack of suitable mouse models. Further, the difficulty in separating the downstream effects of exogenous glucose from those of exogenous insulin in cultured β-cells and isolated islets is confounded by the continuous secretion of insulin via the regulated and constitutive pathways (19, 22). This has prompted investigators to study β-cell lines that stably or transiently express small interfering RNA (siRNA) against insulin receptors (9, 38) in an attempt to render them unresponsive to insulin or whole islets treated with siRNA against IRS-2 (41). However, in the former approaches a complete reduction in insulin receptor expression has not been achieved, with the knockdowns ranging from 80 to 90%, which would allow residual receptor activity and potential activation of downstream pathways. In the latter approach, the use of siRNA in whole islets would target all islet cell types, thereby making it difficult to identify the effects in only β-cells. To circumvent these limitations and to directly examine the signaling effects of exogenous glucose in the complete absence of insulin action, we have derived β-cell lines from βIRKO or IRS2KO mice in which the insulin receptor or IRS-2 protein is undetectable and compared them with β-cells expressing all proteins in the insulin/IGF-1 signaling cascade. We report that the growth and survival effects of glucose require the activation of insulin receptors and IRS-2 and implicate a dominant role for insulin in the regulation of β-cell regeneration and function.
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Immunoprecipitation and Western blot analyses. For immunoprecipitations, cells were lysed (50 mM HEPES, 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM EDTA, 10 mM Na4P2O7, 100 mM NaF, 1% Triton, pH 7.5, 1x protease inhibitor cocktail [Roche], and 2 mM vanadate), and 500 µg of total protein lysate was subjected to immunoprecipitation. Briefly, a total of 30 µl of protein A-agarose beads (Upstate) per sample was washed twice in protein lysis buffer in the presence of protease and phosphatase inhibitors. The beads were then prebound with the specific antibody for 1 h at room temperature. For 500 µg of total protein we used the following amounts of antibodies: 1.5 µg anti IRβ (C-19; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), 1.5 µg anti IGF-1Rβ (C-20; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), 4 µg anti-IRS-1 (Upstate), and 2.5 µg anti-IRS-2 (Upstate). Unbound antibody was then removed by centrifugation and beads were washed to reduce background signal. A total of 500 to 1,000 µg of protein was added to the beads and binding was allowed overnight at 4°C. Total unbound protein was removed by centrifugation and beads were washed three times in the lysis buffer before proteins were released from the beads by boiling the samples for 15 min in 2x Laemmli buffer. Total eluate was subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and immunoblotting.
For immunoblotting, cells were lysed in radioimmunoprecipitation assay buffer. Protein lysates were precleared by centrifugation at 13,000 rpm and 4°C and total protein content was determined using the bicinchoninic acid assay (Pierce, Rockford, IL). Samples were resuspended in reducing SDS-PAGE sample buffer at a concentration of 1 µg/µl and boiled for 5 min, and 20 to 50 µg of total protein was resolved by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in a discontinuous buffer system. Then, proteins were transferred onto nitrocellulose membranes (Schleicher & Schuell, Dassel, Germany), blocked in 5% BSA in Tris-buffered saline-Tween, and incubated with primary antibodies diluted (1:1,000) in 5% BSA in Tris-buffered saline-Tween overnight at 4°C followed by a 1-h incubation at room temperature with secondary antibodies at a 1:5,000 dilution. Antibodies against Akt, phospho-Akt (Ser473), FoxO1, phospho-FoxO1 (Ser256), p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK; extracellular signal-regulated kinase [ERK]), phospho-p42/p44 MAPK (p-ERK; Thr202/Tyr204), and cleaved caspase-3 (Asp175) were from Cell Signaling Technology.
Anti-phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K; p85
; n-SH2 domain) was obtained from Upstate. Anti-
-tubulin antibody was from Abcam. Horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G and goat anti-mouse immunoglobulin G were from Santa Cruz Biotechnology. The phosphotyrosine antibody used (mouse monoclonal) was obtained from an in-house source. Adenovirus for
p85
was obtained from M. Kasuga (Kobe University, Japan) (44), and the adenovirus for lacZ was prepared as described previously (50). The adenoviruses were used at a multiplicity of infection of 100, and equal protein expression in the cell lines was confirmed by Western blotting.
Measurement of PI3K activity. Following incubation the cells were solubilized in lysis buffer (50 mM HEPES, 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM EDTA, 10 mM Na4P2O7, 100 mM NaF, pH 7.5, 1% Nonidet P-40 substitute, protease inhibitor cocktail [Roche], and 2 mM vanadate) for 15 min at 4°C and then sonicated and precleared at 13,000 rpm for 15 min. A 750-µg aliquot of protein lysate was incubated with 10 µl of antiphosphotyrosine antibody (in-house source) overnight at 4°C. Protein complexes were then coupled to 30 µl of protein A/G-Sepharose beads (Upstate) for 90 min. Immunopellets then were washed twice in lysis buffer, twice in 0.5 M LiCl -0.1 M Tris, and twice in PI3K assay buffer (20 mM HEPES, pH 7.4, 5 mM MgCl2). After the final wash the pellet was resuspended in 30 µl PI3K assay buffer.
For lipid kinase assays, anti-PI was obtained from Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc. (Alabaster, AL), and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) silica plates were obtained from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). Phosphorylated lipids were detected by autoradiography on Bioexpress Blue Basic Autorad films.
Phosphatidylinositol (10 µg/condition), which had been dried under air and dispersed at a concentration of 1 mg/ml in PI3K assay buffer by sonication at 4°C, was added to each sample. The reaction was started by adding 10 µl of a solution containing 50 mM MgCl2, 250 µM ATP, and 0.5 µl (5 µCi) of [33P]ATP. After 15 min of incubation at room temperature the reaction was terminated by adding 15 µl of 4 N HCl. Phospholipids were immediately extracted with 130 µl CHCl3-MeOH (1:1) in an Eppendorf tube. The organic phase was spotted onto Silica Gel 60 TLC plates. The TLC plates were developed in CHCl3-MeOH-H2O-NH4OH (45:35:8.5:1.5) for 1 h and then exposed to autoradiography films for 3 days.
Semiquantitative RT-PCR. Cells were infected with the indicated adenovirus followed by starvation and glucose stimulation for 12 h or, alternatively, after starvation the cells were treated with 10 mM compound LY294002 for 30 min followed by glucose stimulation. Total RNA was isolated from cells and 500 ng of RNA was applied to a reverse transcription (RT-PCR) One-Step system (Invitrogen). The PCR was carried out as described previously (39).
Apoptosis and [3H]thymidine assays. Cells were starved overnight in serum-free DMEM containing 1.1 mM glucose. Subsequently, cells were incubated in DMEM containing 1.1 mM glucose and the indicated concentration of insulin for 5 h, and the lysates were applied to an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit (Boehringer Mannheim/Roche) to determine the amount of nucleosomes as a marker of apoptosis as described previously (51). For caspase-3 experiments, the cells were incubated for the designated periods in the presence of the indicated glucose concentrations for 24 h. For the [3H]thymidine assays, cells were plated at a density of 3 x 105 cells/well in 24-well dishes. After 24 h, the medium was changed to DMEM and incubated with 0.1% insulin-free BSA. After a further 48 to 72 h of incubation the cells were pulsed with 2 mCi of [methyl-3H]thymidine (NEN) per well for 1 h at 37°C followed by washing with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline and then lysed in 0.1% SDS. Trichloroacetate-precipitable DNA incorporated radioactivity was determined using a scintillation counter. All assays were performed in triplicate.
Statistical methods. All experiments were performed at least three times unless otherwise indicated and quantified for changes as described in Results. Statistical methods included Student's t test, analysis of variance, or analysis of variance with post hoc comparisons as appropriate. A P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
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FIG. 1. Insulin activates proteins in the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway in control β-cells, but not in βIRKO cells. Cells were stimulated with 100 nM insulin for 0, 1, 5, or 15 min. (a) Tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor and IGF-1 receptor. (b) Tyrosine phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-2. The immunoprecipitates (IP) with anti-IR, anti-IRS-1, or anti-IRS-2 from the indicated cell lysates with or without insulin stimulation were immunoblotted (IB) with anti-PY (top panels) or the p85 antibody (bottom panels). (c) PI3K activity associated with the phosphotyrosine complex. PI3K activity was measured after immunoprecipitation with anti-PY from the indicated cell lysates. (d) Phosphorylation of Akt and ERK. The cell lysates were immunoblotted with the indicated antibodies. Representative blots are shown from three independent experiments.
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Glucose activates proteins in the insulin signaling pathway in cultured β-cells. To explore whether the absence of the insulin receptor impacted the signaling effects of glucose, we stimulated βIRKO or control cells with glucose for similar periods as for insulin. In controls, glucose stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor, but not IGF-1R, albeit more slowly and weakly compared with insulin stimulation (Fig. 2a, left panel). The stimulatory effect of glucose was virtually undetectable in βIRKO cells (Fig. 2a, right panel). Similarly, the phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-2 also occurred more slowly and weakly in control cells in response to glucose compared to the rapid effects observed with insulin stimulation (Fig. 2b, upper left and right panels). The protein levels of p85 bound to IRS-1 or IRS-2 paralleled the levels of phosphorylation of each IRS protein (Fig. 2b, lower panels). By contrast, in βIRKO cells, glucose failed to stimulate phosphorylation of IRS-1 or IRS-2, despite upregulation in the basal phosphorylation of IRS-2 (Fig. 2b). PI3K associated with the phosphotyrosine complex also paralleled the changes in p85 protein bound to IRS proteins in controls, while in βIRKO cells the elevated high basal activity was not altered further in response to glucose stimulation (Fig. 2c). Akt phosphorylation was enhanced in control cells after glucose stimulation with maximum phosphorylation occurring 15 min after stimulation (Fig. 2d), in comparison to the rapid activation of Akt by insulin within 5 minutes (Fig. 1d). Interestingly, glucose failed to activate Akt in βIRKO cells (Fig. 2d), suggesting that the effect of glucose on Akt signaling requires functional insulin receptors. One interpretation of these data is that the effects of glucose on PI3K and Akt kinase occur more slowly than the effects of exogenous insulin because either glucose has to be metabolized to generate additional signals to enhance signaling and/or glucose has to first secrete insulin for activation of the insulin receptor in an autocrine/paracrine manner. In contrast and consistent with previous reports (23), ERK was activated by glucose in both control and βIRKO cells (Fig. 1d), confirming that the effects of glucose on ERK activity occur independently of insulin signaling.
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FIG. 2. Glucose activates proteins in the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway in control β-cells, but not in βIRKO cells. Cells were treated with glucose (25 mM) for 0, 1, 5, or 15 min. (a) Tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor and IGF-1 receptor. (b) Tyrosine phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-2. The immunoprecipitates (IP) with anti-IR, anti-IRS-1, or anti-IRS-2 from the indicated cell lysates with or without glucose stimulation were immunoblotted (IB) with anti-PY (top panels) or the p85 antibody (bottom panels). (c) PI3K activity associated with the phosphotyrosine complex. PI3K activity was measured in the immunoprecipitation with anti-PY from the indicated cell lysates. (d) Phosphorylation of Akt and ERK. The cell lysates were immunoblotted with the indicated antibodies. Representative blots are shown from three independent experiments.
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FIG. 3. βIRKO cells exhibit a compensatory increase in expression of IGF-1 receptors. (a) To determine the presence and cross-reactivity of insulin and IGF-1 receptors we treated control β-cells with IGF-I (100 nM) and performed immunoprecipitation and blotting for either the insulin receptor or the IGF-1 receptor. For experiments in panels b to d, cells were treated with IGF-I (100 nM) for 0, 1, 5 or 15 min. (b) Tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor (right panel) and IGF-1 receptor (left panel). (c) Tyrosine phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-2. The immunoprecipitates (IP) with anti-IRS-1 or anti-IRS-2 from the indicated cell lysates with or without IGF-1 stimulation were immunoblotted (IB) with anti-PY (top panels) or the p85 antibody (bottom panels). (d) PI3K activity associated with the phosphotyrosine complex. PI3K activity was measured in the immunoprecipitation reaction with anti-PY from the indicated cell lysates. (e) Phosphorylation of Akt and ERK. The cell lysates were immunoblotted with the indicated antibodies. Representative blots are shown from three independent experiments.
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We would like to emphasize that the relative concentrations of glucose, insulin, and/or IGF-I in the treatment medium play a critical role in determining the signaling effects in the β-cell lines. It is possible that a minor change in the concentration of one stimulus, which would alter the overall ratio with the other stimuli, significantly impacts both the rapidity and magnitude of activation of the proteins in the insulin/IGF-I signaling cascade with consequent differential end points.
Lack of insulin signaling promotes apoptosis and poor cell growth. Glucose has been reported to act as a mitogen, suggesting a role for the nutrient in the modulation of β-cell mass (6, 56). On the other hand, mice lacking insulin receptors in β-cells (25, 52) exhibit reduced β-cell mass and develop age-dependent diabetes; this implies an antiapoptotic role for insulin itself in the regulation of β-cell growth and survival. Furthermore, insulin signaling through PI3K/Akt has been reported to activate survival pathways in different cells, including β-cells (10, 49). To assess the effects of glucose on antiapoptosis/proliferation in β-cells lacking insulin receptors, we treated control or βIRKO cells with a range of concentrations of either glucose or exogenous insulin in the presence of a constant concentration of glucose. Serum depletion-induced apoptosis was detectable in control and βIRKO cells. As expected, addition of increasing amounts of glucose to the medium significantly decreased apoptosis in control cells. However, in βIRKO cells, the rescue from apoptosis was significantly lower at all tested glucose concentrations (Fig. 4a, upper and lower panels), suggesting that signaling via the insulin receptor is necessary to activate one or more downstream proteins to mediate the protective effects of exogenous glucose.
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FIG. 4. Insulin signaling protects β-cells from apoptosis and promotes growth. (a) Glucose protects β-cells from serum deprivation-induced apoptosis. Cells were cultured in the indicated glucose concentrations without serum for 24 h. The levels of apoptosis were assessed by determining the levels of cleaved caspase-3 by Western blotting (IB). Shown is a representative result from three independent experiments. Data (lower graph) for the changes are expressed as the ratio of cleaved caspase-3 to total caspase. *, P < 0.05 versus the respective control (FCS plus glucose). (b) Insulin protects β-cells from serum deprivation-induced apoptosis. Cells were cultured in the indicated concentration of insulin without serum for 24 h. The levels of apoptosis were assessed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for nucleosomal DNA as described in Materials and Methods. Data are expressed as the percentage of cells rescued from apoptosis. Data are from three independent experiments. (c) Glucose promotes activation of cleaved caspase-3 in βIRKO but not in control β-cells. Data are representative of three independent experiments. (d) Blocking the insulin receptor with anti-insulin receptor antibody enhances serum depletion-induced cleaved caspase-3 in control β-cells. Data are representative of three independent experiments. (e) Insulin or glucose stimulates p4E-BP1 in control but not βIRKO β-cells. Cells were stimulated with insulin (100 nM) or glucose (20 mM) for 30 min, and the cell lysates were subjected to immunoblotting (IB) with anti-p-4E-BP1. Data are representative of three independent experiments. (f) βIRKO β-cells exhibit significantly reduced [3H]thymidine incorporation compared to control β-cells over a 96-h incubation period. *, P < 0.05 versus the respective control (day 0); #, P < 0.05 for βIRKO versus control.
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Consistent with reduced β-cell survival, βIRKO cells exhibited increased cleaved caspase-3 even in low glucose concentrations, and this was enhanced further by high glucose levels. In contrast, in control cells, cleaved caspase-3 was virtually undetectable when the cells were exposed to high glucose (Fig. 4c). Indeed, high glucose activated Akt kinase and promoted phosphorylation of its downstream target, FoxO1, in controls (but not in βIRKO cells), presumably through activation of insulin receptors by autocrine effects of secreted insulin (Fig. 4c). Similarly, blocking insulin signaling, using an antibody against the
-subunit of the insulin receptor, increased expression of cleaved caspase-3 in both the presence and absence of glucose (Fig. 4d). Together, these data indicate that high glucose protects against cell death by activating Akt and downstream antiapoptotic signaling through activation of the insulin receptor.
To examine the effects of insulin on DNA synthesis we used a thymidine incorporation assay. While a dose-dependent response was evident in control β-cells, a blunted effect was observed in the βIRKO group (Fig. 4e). These data suggest that a lack of insulin signaling impairs β-cell growth by directly decreasing proliferation. Next, we compared the effects of glucose versus insulin on protein synthesis by assessing the phosphorylation of 4E-BP1, an inhibitory protein involved in translation initiation (15). While insulin and glucose equally promoted phosphorylation of 4E-BP1 in controls, a poor response to either stimulus in βIRKO cells suggested that glucose stimulation of mTOR, a key regulator of protein synthesis and cell cycle progression, requires intact insulin receptors in β-cells (Fig. 4f).
Insulin and glucose promote expression of GLUT2 in a class IA PI3K-dependent manner.
Ablation of insulin receptors in β-cells leads to decreased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion that is associated with reduced expression of GLUT2 (39). Consistent with a role in glucose sensing, expression of GLUT2 was increased by both glucose and insulin stimulation, while IGF-1 minimally enhanced GLUT2 expression in controls and showed little effect in βIRKO cells (Fig. 5a, left and right panels). The glucose-stimulated increase in GLUT2 expression was abolished by treatment with LY294002, a specific inhibitor of PI3K (55), while GLUT2 expression was downregulated under basal conditions in βIRKO cells and not increased further by glucose (Fig. 5b, left and right panels). Moreover, expression of a dominant negative form of the PI3K subunit p85 (
p85) in control cells downregulated both basal and glucose-stimulated expression of GLUT2, while the low levels of GLUT2 in βIRKO cells were further reduced by the expression of
p85 (Fig. 5c, upper and lower panels). These data suggest that glucose regulation of GLUT2 expression by class IA PI3K requires activation of the insulin receptor.
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FIG. 5. Glucose and insulin promote expression of GLUT2. (a) Insulin and glucose enhance expression of GLUT2. Cells were starved overnight and stimulated with insulin (100 nM), IGF-I (100 nM), or glucose (20 mM) for 12 h. The right panel shows the the data normalized to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) levels. *, P < 0.05 for untreated versus insulin or IGF-I or glucose. Data are representative of three independent experiments. (b) Inhibition of PI3K blocks the effect of glucose on the expression of GLUT2. Cells were preincubated with 10 µM LY294002 for 30 min and stimulated with glucose (20 mM) in the presence of the inhibitor for 12 h. The right panel shows data normalized to GAPDH levels. *, P < 0.05 for untreated versus glucose; #, P < 0.05 for glucose versus glucose plus LY. Data are representative of three independent experiments. (c) Expression of the dominant negative p85 in control β-cells downregulates the expression of GLUT2. Cells were infected with the indicated adenovirus for 48 h and stimulated with glucose (20 mM) for 12 h. Total RNA was isolated and subjected to semiquantitative RT-PCR for detecting GLUT2. The lower panel shows quantification of the data. Comparisons with controls: *, P < 0.05 for LacZ glucose treated versus LacZ glucose untreated or for p85 glucose untreated versus LacZ glucose untreated; #, P < 0.05 for p85 glucose treated versus LacZ glucose treated. Comparisons with βIRKOs: #, P < 0.05 for p85 glucose untreated or glucose treated versus LacZ glucose untreated versus glucose treated. For comparisons of LacZ controls versus LacZ βIRKOs: *, P < 0.05 for glucose treated or untreated. Representative data from three independent experiments are shown.
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In control β-cells exogenous application of insulin phosphorylated the insulin receptor rapidly within 1 minute, compared to a weak phosphorylation in βIRS2KO cells. Exogenous insulin also phosphorylated the IGF-1R in both control and KO cells to a similar extent, but the effect was generally weaker compared to the robust effects on the insulin receptor. These data suggest that the ablation of IRS-2 does not directly modulate the functionality of IGF-1 receptors by feedback effects (Fig. 6a, right panel). Insulin stimulated phosphorylation of IRS-1 in controls, with maximal effects between 1 and 5 minutes (Fig. 6b, left upper panel). In βIRS2KO cells we observed hyperphosphorylation of IRS-1 in the basal state that did not increase further upon addition of exogenous insulin, suggesting an attempt to compensate for lack of IRS-2 (20). As expected, we did not detect phosphorylation of IRS-2 in βIRS2KO cells, whereas in control cells IRS-2 phosphorylation was evident with maximal effects between 1 and 5 minutes after insulin stimulation (Fig. 6b, right upper panel). The levels of phosphorylation of the p85 subunit of PI3K corresponded with the phosphorylation status of the insulin receptor substrates located upstream (Fig. 6b, lower panels).
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FIG. 6. Insulin activates proteins in the insulin/IGF-I signaling pathway in control but not in βIRS2KO β-cells. Cells were stimulated with 100 nM insulin for 0, 1, 5, or 15 min. (a) Tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor and IGF-1 receptor. (b) Tyrosine phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-2. The immunoprecipitates (IP) with anti-IR, anti-IRS-1, or anti-IRS-2 antibodies from the indicated cell lysates with or without insulin stimulation were immunoblotted (IB) with anti-PY (top panels) or the p85 antibody (bottom panels). (c) PI3K activity associated with the phosphotyrosine complex. PI3K activity was measured in the immunoprecipitate with anti-PY from the indicated cell lysates. (d) Phosphorylation of Akt kinase and ERK. The cell lysates were immunoblotted with the indicated antibodies. Representative blots are shown from three independent experiments.
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Glucose effects on insulin signaling require activation of IRS-2. The effects of glucose stimulation of βIRS2KO cells were largely similar to those observed in βIRKO β-cells and occurred much slower compared to the rapid effects of insulin stimulation (Fig. 7a and b). We focused on key kinases in the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway and observed that glucose stimulation of control cells enhanced PI3 kinase and Akt kinase activities, with maximal effects occurring 15 min after addition (Fig. 7c). In contrast, in βIRS2KO cells a blunted response was evident even 15 min after glucose addition. However, ERK was activated by glucose to a similar extent in both control and βIRS2KO cells, with maximal effects occurring after 15 min, confirming that the effects of glucose on p-ERK are part of an insulin-independent pathway (Fig. 7d).
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FIG. 7. Glucose activates proteins in the insulin/IGF-I signaling pathway in control but not in βIRS2KO β-cells. Cells were treated with glucose (25 mM) for 0, 1, 5, or 15 min. (a) Tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor and IGF-1 receptor. (b) Tyrosine phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-2. The immunoprecipitates (IP) with anti-IR, anti-IRS-1, or anti-IRS-2 from the indicated cell lysates with or without glucose stimulation were immunoblotted (IB) with anti-PY (top panels) or the p85 antibody (bottom panels). (c) PI3K activity associated with the phosphotyrosine complex. PI3K activity was measured in the immunoprecipite with anti-PY from the indicated cell lysates. (d) Phosphorylation of Akt kinase and ERK. The cell lysates were immunoblotted with the indicated antibodies. Representative blots are shown from three independent experiments.
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FIG. 8. Glucose effects on ERK occur independently of insulin signaling. Cells were exposed to glucose (25 mM) (a) or 2-DOG (25 mM) (b) for 0, 1, 5, or 15 min. The cell lysates were immunoblotted (IB) with the indicated antibody. Representative blots from three experiments are shown.
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Although previous studies, using β-cell lines with a partial knockdown of insulin receptors, have reported that the signaling effects of glucose in β-cells include the effects of secreted insulin, the presence of residual insulin signaling in these cells raised the confounding possibility that the effects of glucose were diluted by the ambient insulin that is continuously secreted by β-cells via the constitutive pathway. For example, in independent experiments Da Silva Xavier et al. (9) and Ohsugi et al. (38) achieved transient knockdown of insulin receptor expression levels in MIN6 cells that ranged between 80 and 90%. In these approaches the residual insulin signaling activity can potentially confound the interpretation of the effects of glucose in β-cells. Further, previous reports indicate potential nonspecific effects of siRNA (2). Similarly, experiments designed to dissociate the effects of glucose from insulin secretion using somatostatin (57) are unlikely to completely block regulated and constitutive insulin secretion that occurs in primary β-cells (19, 22). The use of β-cell lines from βIRKO and IRS-2-KO mice that lack expression of the insulin receptor or IRS-2, respectively, circumvents these limitations and allows for direct interpretation of the signaling effects of glucose.
Consistent with the signaling effects of insulin reported in the classical insulin target tissues (7), insulin rapidly activated proteins in the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway in control β-cells, with peak effects occurring within a minute, in contrast to the delayed effects of glucose. While the delayed effects of glucose in control β-cells may be explained, in part, by the time required for the sugar to be transported into the cell and metabolized (43), the failure of glucose to activate PI3 kinase or Akt kinase in the β-cells only when either the insulin receptor or IRS-2 is lacking clearly indicates the dependence of glucose on the two proteins for its signaling effects (Fig. 9).
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FIG. 9. Schematic of a link between glucose and insulin signaling in β-cells. (A) Potential direct effects of glucose and/or its metabolites on proteins in the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway. (B) Potential indirect effects of glucose and direct effects of insulin following exocytosis of insulin. Akt, v-akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog; FoxO-1, forkhead box O1; GRB2, growth factor receptor-bound protein 2; PIP3, phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate; mTOR, mammalian target of rapamycin; 4EBP1, translation initiation factor 4e binding protein 1.
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We and others have previously reported that loss of insulin signaling in β-cells impairs acute-phase insulin secretion in response to glucose (9, 25). In agreement with these reports, expression of GLUT2 was stimulated by glucose and insulin, but not by IGF-1. This effect is diminished in βIRKO cells, suggesting that functional insulin receptors play a role in glucose-stimulated expression of GLUT2. It is possible that a reduced expression of GLUT2 in βIRKO cells plays some role in the ability of glucose to directly activate insulin signaling proteins. Our studies using the PI3 kinase blocker (LY294002) and the dominant negative p85 provide further evidence that the effect of glucose occurs in a PI3K-dependent manner (62). In contrast, the effects of glucose on p-ERK and its potential downstream effects on cell proliferation and differentiation occur independently of insulin signaling (23). While our studies provide a systematic characterization of alterations in the signaling proteins in the insulin/IGF-1 pathway in βIRKO versus βIRS2KO cell lines, our findings in the βIRKO cells are largely in agreement with those of Da Silva Xavier et al. (9) and Ohsugi et al. (38).
Insulin and glucose minimally activated IGF-1 receptors in controls, while phosphorylation of the IGF-1 receptor and activation of downstream proteins in the insulin/IGF-1 signaling cascade were clearly evident upon IGF-I stimulation of βIRKO cells. The upregulation of IGF-1 receptors in βIRKO cells indicates a potential long-term compensatory effect in the absence of functional insulin receptors. Thus, the significance of IGF-1 receptor activation in vivo for the maintenance of β-cell proliferation and survival, especially during states of β-cell insulin resistance, requires careful investigation (32).
The similarities in signaling defects between βIRKO and IRS-2KO β-cells are consistent with the largely similar phenotypes of the mutant mouse models (24, 25, 59). In contrast, IRS-1KO mice exhibit a compensatory increase in β-cell mass (3, 24, 29) that is, in part, due to upregulation of IRS-2 (20). The contrasting signaling effects due to loss of IRS-1 versus loss of IRS-2 indicate that these two substrates serve different downstream pathways in β-cells, with IRS-1 having a dominant effect in insulin secretion (28, 29) and IRS-2 being relevant for growth and/or apoptosis (8, 20). Cell-specific roles for the two substrates have also been reported in other cell types. For example, brown preadipocytes that lack IRS-1 fail to differentiate into mature adipocytes due to altered UCP-1 expression, compared to a mild defect in cells lacking IRS-2 (48, 53). In hepatocytes, IRS-1 and IRS-2 have been suggested to play complementary roles in regulating lipid and carbohydrate metabolism (13, 18, 42, 47). The availability of stable knockout β-cell lines created for the studies reported in this paper provides us with an opportunity to further dissect the differential signaling responses between IRS-1 and IRS-2 in β-cells.
In summary, our studies point to an important role for insulin/IGF-I signaling in the signaling responses activated by glucose stimulation with implications for a direct effect of insulin in the maintenance of β-cell mass and function (Fig. 9).
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This work was supported by NIH RO1 DK 67536 (R.N.K.) and RO1 DK 68721 (R.N.K.) and the DERC Specialized Assay Core (P30 DK36836).
Published ahead of print on 9 March 2009. ![]()
A.A. and K.U. contributed equally to the report. ![]()
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. Nat. Med. 7:1133-1137.[CrossRef][Medline]
regulatory subunit. Mol. Cell. Biol. 20:8035-8046.This article has been cited by other articles:
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