Diabetes, Vol 48, Issue 3 552-556, Copyright © 1999 by American Diabetes Association
Specific gene expression in pancreatic beta-cells: cloning and characterization of differentially expressed genes
Y Arava, K Adamsky, C Ezerzer, V Ablamunits and MD Walker
Department of Biological Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Identification and characterization of genes expressed preferentially in
pancreatic beta-cells will clarify the mechanisms involved in the
specialized properties of these cells, as well as providing new markers of
the development of type 1 diabetes. Despite major efforts, relatively few
beta-cell-specific genes have been characterized. We applied
representational difference analysis to identify genes expressed
selectively in the pancreatic beta-cell line betaTC1 compared with the
pancreatic alpha-cell line alphaTC1 and isolated 26 clones expressed at
higher levels in the beta-cells than in the alpha-cells. DNA sequencing
revealed that 14 corresponded to known genes (that is, present in GenBank).
Only four of those genes had been shown previously to be expressed at
higher levels in beta-cells (insulin, islet amyloid polypeptide,
neuronatin, and protein kinase A regulatory subunit [RIalpha]). The known
genes include transcription factors (STAT6) and mediators of signal
transduction (guanylate cyclase). The remaining 12 genes are absent from
the GenBank database or are present as expressed sequence tag (EST)
sequences (4 clones). Some of the genes are expressed in a highly specific
pattern-expression in betaTC1 and islet cells and in relatively few of the
non-beta-cell types examined; others are expressed in most cell types
tested. The identification of these differentially expressed genes may aid
in attaining a clearer understanding of the mechanisms involved in
beta-cell function and of the possible immunogens involved in development
of type 1 diabetes.