Diabetes 51:S427-S433, 2002 © 2002 by the American Diabetes Association, Inc.
Insulin Receptor Signaling and Sarco/Endoplasmic Reticulum Calcium ATPase in ß-CellsFrom the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Glucose is the main physiological secretagogue for insulin secretion by pancreatic ß-cells, and the major biochemical mechanisms involved have been elucidated. In particular, an increase in intracellular calcium is important for insulin exocytosis. More recently, it has become apparent that the ß-cell also has many of the elements of the insulin receptor signal transduction pathway, including the insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate (IRS) proteins 1 and 2. Studies with transgenic models have shown that the ß-cell-selective insulin receptor knockout and the IRS-1 knockout lead to reduced glucose-induced insulin secretion. Overexpression of the insulin receptor and IRS-1 in ß-cells results in increased insulin secretion and increased cytosolic Ca2+. We have thus postulated the existence of a novel autocrine-positive feedback loop of insulin on its own secretion involving interaction with the insulin receptor signal transduction pathway and regulation of intracellular calcium homeostasis. Our current working hypothesis is that this glucose-dependent interaction occurs at the level of IRS-1 and the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum calcium ATPase, the calcium pump of the endoplasmic reticulum.
Glucose-induced insulin secretion by the ß-cell. The insulin-secreting ß-cell of the endocrine pancreas has a central role in regulating glucose homeostasis (1). Glucose oxidation by the ß-cell is essential for insulin secretion. In particular, glucokinase, the first step in glycolysis, has been convincingly shown to be the ß-cell glucose sensor (2). ß-Cell metabolism of glucose results in an increase in the ATP-to-ADP ratio, leading to closure of the ATP-sensitive K+ channel, depolarization of the ß-cell, and influx of extracellular Ca2+ through voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels (3). The subsequent increase in intracellular Ca2+ then activates insulin exocytosis (Fig. 1). Most likely, a number of protein kinases, including the calcium and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase as well as protein kinase C, are involved in these distal steps (4).
The importance of the ß-cell in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes is now clearly recognized (5). Type 2 diabetes is characterized by 1) insulin resistance in target tissues of insulin, such as skeletal muscle and adipocytes for glucose uptake and liver for glucose production, and 2) impaired insulin secretion (6). Peripheral tissue and hepatocyte insulin resistance lead to reduced glucose uptake and decreased inhibition of hepatic glucose production. To compensate for insulin resistance and to maintain euglycemia, pancreatic ß-cell insulin secretion increases significantly, resulting in hyperinsulinemia. Eventually, the ß-cell fails, and overt disease appears. Type 2 diabetes is believed to be a polygenic disease that is also affected by various environmental factors such diet, physical activity, and age.
Insulin receptor signal transduction pathway in the ß-cell. In 1995, we first reported the presence of the insulin receptor in insulin-secreting ß-cells and showed that glucose-induced insulin secretion activates the ß-cell surface insulin receptor tyrosine kinase and its intracellular signaling transduction pathway (8,9). In the last few years, there has been a rapidly growing body of evidence confirming our original findings that the insulin receptor signaling pathway is active in pancreatic ß-cells and plays an important role in ß-cell regulation (5,815) (Table 1). Activation of the ß-cell insulin receptor results in rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor ß-subunit and the IRS proteins (8). Deletion of insulin receptor results in neonatal death in mice (16) and leprechaunism in humans (17). Mice with heterozygous null alleles of insulin receptor and IRS-1 (IR/ IRS-1+/-) exhibit hyperinsulinemia and ß-cell hyperplasia, and they develop overt diabetes (18). Knockouts of IRS-1 and -2 produce different effects. Inactivation of IRS-1 (IRS-1-/-) leads to mild insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and ß-cell hyperplasia with no overt diabetes syndrome (5,13). In contrast, inactivation of IRS-2 (IRS-2-/-) results in ß-cell failure and causes type 2 diabetes (13,14). The differential effects of IRS-1 and -2 knockout indicate the two major IRSs mediate differential signals in ß-cells. However, the mechanisms accounting for such differential regulation and for IRS-1 function in the ß-cell are still unknown.
Our prior studies (Table 2) have shown that in ß-cells stably overexpressing twofold IRS-1, Ca2+ homeostasis was perturbed, with an increase in cytosolic Ca2+ and increased insulin secretion (19). Further investigation revealed that the increase in cytosolic Ca2+ was due to inhibition of sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA), a protein responsible for Ca2+ uptake into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen. When the control ß-cell line was treated with thapsigargin, a SERCA inhibitor, the cytosolic Ca2+ levels increased to the same level as the ß-IRS1 cell line. Furthermore, ER calcium uptake in a digitonin-permeabilized cell system was reduced in the ß-IRS1 cells compared with controls. This increase in cytosolic Ca2+ was also seen in a cell line overexpressing the insulin receptor, but not in a cell line overexpressing a kinase-deficient mutant of the insulin receptor (11). We thus postulated the existence of a novel autocrine loop of insulin on insulin secretion from the ß-cell, mediated by activation of the insulin receptor signaling pathway and IRS-1. In isolated mouse islets, insulin treatment of islets caused an increase in intracellular Ca2+ within minutes, with concomitant insulin exocytosis (2022). In addition, studies with a ß-cell-specific insulin receptor knockout mouse and IRS-1-deficient ß-cell lines show that glucose-induced insulin secretion is lost under those conditions (15,23). Thus, there is a convergence of data obtained in animal and cellular models that demonstrate the existence of a positive feedback loop of insulin on glucose-induced insulin secretion that is mediated by an interaction of the insulin signal transduction pathway with the Ca2+-homeostatic mechanisms of the ß-cell.
Role of SERCA. Cellular Ca2+ is a critical element in ß-cell function (1,24,25). Abnormal intracellular concentration of Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) is a common defect in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes (26). Altered Ca2+ metabolism has also been reported to affect ß-cell function, including insulin biosynthesis (27). The ER plays an important role in the regulation of [Ca2+]i (24). Typically, basal Ca2+ concentrations are in the 80100 nmol/l range, and after glucose stimulation they increase three- to fivefold. Once the stimulation is removed, the ER sequesters excess cytosolic Ca2+, and the Ca2+ levels return to baseline. SERCA is the major calcium pump that sequestrates cytosolic Ca2+ into ER lumen. Its biochemical characteristics have been extensively described, and its implication in the regulation of intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis is recognized. Thapsigargin, a nonphorboid tumor promoter, specifically inhibits ER Ca2+-ATPase activity and leads to elevated cytosolic Ca2+ in ß-cells and enhanced short-term glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (28).
SERCA2 and -3 have been found in ß-cells (2831). Both SERCA2 and -3 gene transcripts have splicing variants resulting in distinct protein isoforms. SERCA2a is the muscle isoform and is expressed in slow-twitch skeletal muscle. SERCA2b differs from SERCA2a only in the COOH-terminal part and is widely expressed in nonmuscle tissues (32). SERCA3 is coexpressed with SERCA2b in nonmuscle tissues and has three splicing isoforms: SERCA3a, -b, and -c (33). SERCA3 has a lower apparent affinity for Ca2+ than other members of the SERCA family (34). SERCA3b and -c have even lower apparent affinities for Ca2+ than SERCA3a (33). Recent studies show that loss of SERCA activities and reduction of SERCA3 gene expression in ß-cells are associated with diabetes in db/db mice (30) and GK rats (35). Finally, Varadi et al. (36) have identified four rare missense mutations of the SERCA3 gene in type 2 diabetic patients recruited for the U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study: Gln108
Interaction of IRS-1 and SERCA.
More recently, we have used three complementary techniques to show that IRS-1 colocalizes to intracellular membranes in pancreatic ß-cell lines (P.D.B., B.A.W., unpublished observations). Subcellular fractionation of the ßTC6-F7 and the ß-IRS1 cell lines showed that IRS proteins localized to the intracellular membranes in the high-speed pellet. Furthermore, overexpressed IRS-1 in the ß-IRS1 cell line was primarily in the intracellular membrane fraction. Colocalization of IRS-1 with the ER marker protein immunoglobulin binding protein (BiP)/glucose-regulated protein 78 kDa (GRP78) was demonstrated by confocal microscopy. Although the signals for the IRS proteins and ER marker clearly overlapped, there was some additional immunofluorescence staining in other portions of the cell. Finally, immunoelectron microscopy experiments showed that IRS-1 is present in ER-derived microsomal vesicles from ß-cell lines, as confirmed by its coimmunostaining with BiP/GRP78 and SERCA3b. Taken together, these data present a strong case for IRS protein localization to intracellular membranes, in particular the ER, in pancreatic ß-cell lines. The lack of complete localization of IRS-1 and -2 to the ER by confocal microscopy indicates that IRS proteins may distribute to several pools within the cell. Considering the dynamic nature of insulin receptor signaling, it is possible that IRS proteins translocate to several locations in the cell in response to upstream signals. However, the majority of both phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated IRS proteins are maintained in intracellular membranes. IRS proteins in this pool can interact with other proteins in the same location and potentially form large protein complexes that are insoluble in detergents. An example of this comes from one study reporting that IRS-1 can bind to the 3A subunit of the AP-3 adaptor protein complex, resulting in intracellular membrane localization (38). The localization of IRS proteins to the ER increases the likelihood of a direct interaction with SERCA isoforms in ß-cells. Indeed, IRS proteins have previously been shown to bind to several SERCA isoforms, including the ß-cell isoform SERCA2b (37), and the pancreatic ß-cell SERCA isoform SERCA3b coimmunoprecipitates with IRS-1 when expressed in a CHO T-cell line (P.D.B. and B.A.W., unpublished observations). Furthermore, this interaction is enhanced when IRS-1 is phosphorylated by insulin stimulation. Overexpression of IRS-1 in this system results in further enhancement of IRS-1 binding to SERCA3b, which could explain why IRS-1 overexpression in ß-IRS1 cells inhibits SERCA function (19). In contrast to our findings, a recent study demonstrates that insulin can cause ß-cell hyperpolarization and diminish cytosolic calcium oscillations in mouse islets incubated in 10 mmol/l glucose via an increase in whole-cell K+ conductance (39). This effect could be mediated through a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-dependent pathway. However, in another study, mouse islets incubated with the insulin-mimetic compound L-783,281 had increased insulin release at 11 mmol/l glucose (40). There was no change in the pulsatile release of insulin under these conditions. Treatment with the insulin-mimetic at 3 mmol/l glucose decreased the pulse frequency of insulin release, but not the amount. Although Aspinwall et al. (21) showed that insulin-induced insulin exocytosis could occur at 3 mmol/l glucose, their experiments measured exocytosis events and not actual insulin release, which may have been minimal at that glucose concentration. Thus, although insulin can effect the electrophysiology of the ß-cell in a negative fashion, it can also increase insulin release. Most likely, the effects of insulin depend on the extracellular glucose concentration.
Overexpression of SERCA isoforms in ß-cells. Sequencing information showed that we successfully generated the expression clones of pDT-SERCA2b and pDT-SERCA3b transgenes under the control of a CMV promoter. We then used the constructs to create stable expression in ß-TC6 insulin-secreting cells and quantify the endogenous as well as the His-tagged SERCA protein levels. Analysis of SERCA2b cell lysates showed that the protein is expressed in the nontransfected wild type, in cells transfected with the empty vector (control), as well as in cells with the pDT-SERCA2b construct (Fig. 3A). However, further analysis showed that the level of expression was not significantly different in control cells and the cells stably transfected with pDT-SERCA2b. Furthermore, immunoprecipitation of the His-tagged SERCA2b protein using anti-His antibody and immunoblotting with either anti-His or anti-SERCA2b revealed lack of expression of the pDT-SERCA2b construct to any sufficient amount that can be detected using the protocol used (data not shown). Western blot analysis of analysis of SERCA3b also did not show any significant difference in expression levels between the neo controls and the stable cell lines (Fig. 3B, lanes 37). Furthermore, immunoprecipitation complex data showed that the SERCA3b protein was also not expressed to any significant extent in the stably transfected ß-cells compared with the neo controls (Fig. 3C). To demonstrate that the constructs can be expressed at all, we transiently or stably transfected CHO cells (which do not express SERCA3b) with the pDT-SERCA3b plasmid. As shown in Fig. 3B (lanes 1 and 2) and Fig. 3C (lanes 1, 2, 5, and 6), SERCA3b was robustly overexpressed in CHO cells after transfection (Cho3b), whereas the protein was not detected in the control nontransfected cells. The fact that ß-TC6 cells transfected with SERCA3b survived antibiotic selection (compared with nontransfected ß-TC6 cells that died under the same conditions) suggests that these cells did in fact incorporate the SERCA DNA into their genome. However, the lack expression of the protein in these cells (as compared with CHO) may suggest a teleological tight regulatory control necessary for the maintenance of calcium homeostasis in the insulin-secreting cells.
To determine the effect of overexpression of the SERCA proteins on cytosolic Ca2+, CHO cells stably transfected with pDT-SERCA3b were plated on 25-mm glass coverslips. After 48 h, the cells were loaded with Fura 2-AM (acetoxymethylester) in Ca2+-free Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate (KRB) (no EGTA) in the presence or absence of 100 nmol/l insulin. After a 40-min incubation, cells were washed with prewarmed KRB and perifused on top for 10 min with KRB (G15) with or without insulin. We observed no difference between the SERCA3b-expressing cells and the vector controls. Thus, it appears that the contribution of SERCA3b to total calcium regulation in this system is minimal.
Real-time monitoring of secretory granule trafficking in ß-cells using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-tagged synaptotagmin III.
ß-TC6 cells were stably transfected with the constructs using FuGene. Cells transfected with the Fsyt3 plasmid were referred to as Fsyt3 cells, those transfected with the Syt3F plasmid were referred to as Syt3F cells, and those transfected with empty vector were referred to as EGFP cells. Western blot analysis of the EGFP and Fsyt3 cell lines demonstrated overexpression of the constructs. Immunogold electron microscopy of the transfected cells demonstrated colocalization of Syt2 with insulin secretory granules. When viewed under a confocal microscope, there was a clear difference in the distribution of fluorescence in the EGFP cells as opposed to the Fsyt3 and Syt3F cells. The fluorescence within the EGFP cells is diffuse and spreads throughout the entire cell. In the cells expressing the fusion protein, however, the fluorescence is concentrated into dense clusters. Actual vesicular trafficking appeared to be a rather rare event, however. Movies of
In conclusion, we propose the existence of a novel positive-feedback pathway in which insulin can regulate insulin secretion in pancreatic ß-cells. A key component of this pathway is interaction between IRS-1 and SERCA, which regulates intracellular Ca2+. IRS-1 is present in the ER and can directly bind to the ß-cell isoforms of SERCA, specifically SERCA3b. Insulin stimulation results in increased binding of IRS-1 to SERCA3b, which inhibits the Ca2+-ATPase, increases cytosolic Ca2+, and augments fractional insulin secretion. Importantly, this positive-feedback loop on insulin secretion is dependent on the presence of glucose. It is conceivable that glucose or products of glucose oxidation may regulate the interaction of IRS-1 and SERCA by some means yet to be determined. Although the physiological significance of this positive feedback loop is not completely elucidated, it could serve to prime islets for optimal insulin release.
This work was supported by grants from the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Health (DK49814). The Radioimmunoassay Core and the Biomedical Imaging Core of the Penn Diabetes Center are supported by the National Institutes of Health (DK19525).
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Bryan A. Wolf, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, 5135 Main, 34th St. and Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4399. E-mail: wolfb{at}mail.med.upenn.edu. Received for publication 18 March 2002 and accepted in revised form 15 April 2002. BiP, immunoglobulin binding protein; [Ca2+]i, intracellular Ca2+ concentration; CMV, cytomegalovirus; EGFP, enhanced green fluorescent protein; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; GRP78, glucose-regulated protein 78 kDa; IRS, insulin receptor substrate; KRB, Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate; SERCA, sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase; Syt3, synaptotagmin III. The symposium and the publication of this article have been made possible by an unrestricted educational grant from Servier, Paris.
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