PAX4 preserves endoplasmic reticulum integrity preventing beta cell degeneration in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes mellitus

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS

A strategy to enhance pancreatic islet functional beta cell mass (BCM) while restraining inflammation, through the manipulation of molecular and cellular targets, would provide a means to counteract the deteriorating glycaemic control associated with diabetes mellitus. The aims of the current study were to investigate the therapeutic potential of such a target, the islet-enriched and diabetes-linked transcription factor paired box 4 (PAX4), to restrain experimental autoimmune diabetes (EAD) in the RIP-B7.1 mouse model background and to characterise putative cellular mechanisms associated with preserved BCM.

METHODS

Two groups of RIP-B7.1 mice were genetically engineered to: (1) conditionally express either PAX4 (BPTL) or its diabetes-linked mutant variant R129W (mutBPTL) using doxycycline (DOX); and (2) constitutively express luciferase in beta cells through the use of RIP. Mice were treated or not with DOX, and EAD was induced by immunisation with a murine preproinsulin II cDNA expression plasmid. The development of hyperglycaemia was monitored for up to 4 weeks following immunisation and alterations in the BCM were assessed weekly by non-invasive in vivo bioluminescence intensity (BLI). In parallel, BCM, islet cell proliferation and apoptosis were evaluated by immunocytochemistry. Alterations in PAX4- and PAX4R129W-mediated islet gene expression were investigated by microarray profiling. PAX4 preservation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homeostasis was assessed using thapsigargin, electron microscopy and intracellular calcium measurements.

RESULTS

PAX4 overexpression blunted EAD, whereas the diabetes-linked mutant variant PAX4R129W did not convey protection. PAX4-expressing islets exhibited reduced insulitis and decreased beta cell apoptosis, correlating with diminished DNA damage and increased islet cell proliferation. Microarray profiling revealed that PAX4 but not PAX4R129W targeted expression of genes implicated in cell cycle and ER homeostasis. Consistent with the latter, islets overexpressing PAX4 were protected against thapsigargin-mediated ER-stress-related apoptosis. Luminal swelling associated with ER stress induced by thapsigargin was rescued in PAX4-overexpressing beta cells, correlating with preserved cytosolic calcium oscillations in response to glucose. In contrast, RNA interference mediated repression of PAX4-sensitised MIN6 cells to thapsigargin cell death.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION

The coordinated regulation of distinct cellular pathways particularly related to ER homeostasis by PAX4 not achieved by the mutant variant PAX4R129W alleviates beta cell degeneration and protects against diabetes mellitus. The raw data for the RNA microarray described herein are accessible in the Gene Expression Omnibus database under accession number GSE62846.

C-peptide induces human renal mesangial cell proliferation in vitro, activating Src-kinase, PI-3 kinase and ERK1/2

BACKGROUND

Elevated levels of C-peptide have been found in patients with insulin resistance and early type 2 diabetes. These patients are at greater risk to develop micro- and macrovascular complications. Since diabetic nephropathy involves glomerular hyperproliferation, the present study evaluates the role of C-peptide on human renal mesangial cell proliferation.

METHODS AND RESULTS

C-peptide induces proliferation of human renal mesangial cells in a concentration-dependent manner with a maximal 2.6±0.4-fold induction at 10 nmol/L (P<0.05 compared with unstimulated cells; n=6), as revealed by [3H]-thymidine incorporation experiments. The proliferative effect of C-peptide is prevented by Src-kinase inhibitor-PP2, PI-3 kinase inhibitor-LY294002, and the ERK1/2 inhibitor-U126. Moreover, C-peptide induces phosphorylation of Src, as well as activation of PI-3 kinase and ERK1/2. Furthermore, C-peptide induces cyclin D1 expression as well as phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein (Rb).

CONCLUSIONS

These results demonstrate an active role of C-peptide on the proliferation of human renal mesangial cells in vitro involving PI-3 kinase and MAP kinase signaling pathways, suggesting a possible role of C-peptide in glomerular hyperproliferation in patients with diabetic nephropathy.

Modulation of calcium-activated potassium channels induces cardiogenesis of pluripotent stem cells and enrichment of pacemaker-like cells

BACKGROUND

Ion channels are key determinants for the function of excitable cells, but little is known about their role and involvement during cardiac development. Earlier work identified Ca(2+)-activated potassium channels of small and intermediate conductance (SKCas) as important regulators of neural stem cell fate. Here we have investigated their impact on the differentiation of pluripotent cells toward the cardiac lineage.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We have applied the SKCa activator 1-ethyl-2-benzimidazolinone on embryonic stem cells and identified this particular ion channel family as a new critical target involved in the generation of cardiac pacemaker-like cells: SKCa activation led to rapid remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, inhibition of proliferation, induction of differentiation, and diminished teratoma formation. Time-restricted SKCa activation induced cardiac mesoderm and commitment to the cardiac lineage as shown by gene regulation, protein, and functional electrophysiological studies. In addition, the differentiation into cardiomyocytes was modulated in a qualitative fashion, resulting in a strong enrichment of pacemaker-like cells. This was accompanied by induction of the sino-atrial gene program and in parallel by a loss of the chamber-specific myocardium. In addition, SKCa activity induced activation of the Ras-Mek-Erk signaling cascade, a signaling pathway involved in the 1-ethyl-2-benzimidazolinone-induced effects.

CONCLUSIONS

SKCa activation drives the fate of pluripotent cells toward mesoderm commitment and cardiomyocyte specification, preferentially into nodal-like cardiomyocytes. This provides a novel strategy for the enrichment of cardiomyocytes and in particular, the generation of a specific subtype of cardiomyocytes, pacemaker-like cells, without genetic modification.

Deficiency in B7-H1 (PD-L1)/PD-1 coinhibition triggers pancreatic beta-cell destruction by insulin-specific, murine CD8 T-cells

OBJECTIVE

RIP-B7.1 mice expressing the costimulator molecule B7.1 (CD80) on pancreatic beta-cells are a well established model to characterize preproinsulin-specific CD8 T-cell responses and experimental autoimmune diabetes (EAD). Different immunization strategies could prime preproinsulin-specific CD8 T-cells in wild-type C57BL/6 (B6) mice, but did not induce diabetes. We tested whether altering the B7-H1 (PD-L1) coinhibition on pancreatic beta-cells can reveal a diabetogenic potential of preproinsulin-specific CD8 T-cells.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

DNA-based immunization and adoptive T-cell transfers were used to characterize the induction of preproinsulin-specific CD8 T-cell responses and EAD in RIP-B7.1, B6, B7-H1(-/-), PD-1(-/-) or bone marrow chimeric mice.

RESULTS

Preproinsulin-specific CD8 T-cells primed in B6 mice revealed their diabetogenic potential after adoptive transfer into congenic RIP-B7.1 hosts. Furthermore, preproinsulin-specific CD8 T-cells primed in anti-B7-H1 antibody-treated B6 mice, or primed in B7-H1(-/-) or PD-1(-/-) mice induced EAD. Immunization of bone marrow chimeric mice showed that deficiency of either B7-H.1 in pancreatic beta-cells or of PD-1 in autoreactive CD8 T-cells induced EAD.

CONCLUSIONS

An imbalance between costimulator (B7.1) and coinhibitor (B7-H1) signals on pancreatic beta-cells can trigger pancreatic beta-cell-destruction by preproinsulin-specific CD8 T-cells. Hence, regulation of the susceptibility of the beta-cells for a preproinsulin-specific CD8 T-cell attack can allow or suppress EAD.

Processing in the endoplasmic reticulum generates an epitope on the insulin A chain that stimulates diabetogenic CD8 T cell responses

RIP-B7.1 mice express the costimulator molecule B7.1 (CD80) on pancreatic beta cells and are a well-established model for studying de novo induction of diabetogenic CD8 T cells. Immunization of RIP-B7.1 mice with preproinsulin (ppins)-encoding plasmid DNA efficiently induces experimental autoimmune diabetes (EAD). EAD is associated with an influx of CD8 T cells specific for the K(b)/A(12-21) epitope into the pancreatic islets and the subsequent destruction of beta cells. In this study, we used this model to investigate how ppins-derived Ags are expressed and processed to prime diabetogenic, K(b)/A(12-21)-specific CD8 T cells. Targeting the K(b)/A(12-21) epitope, the insulin A chain, or the ppins to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) (but not to the cytosol and/or nucleus) efficiently elicited K(b)/A(12-21)-specific CD8 T cell responses. The K(b)/A(12-21) epitope represents the COOH terminus of the ppins molecule and, hence, did not require COOH-terminal processing before binding its restriction element in the ER. However, K(b)/A(12-21)-specific CD8 T cells were also induced by COOH-terminally extended ppins-specific polypeptides expressed in the ER, indicating that the epitope position at the COOH terminus is less important for its diabetogenicity than is targeting the Ag to the ER. The K(b)/A(12-21) epitope had a low avidity for K(b) molecules. When epitopes of unrelated Ags were coprimed at the same site of Ag delivery, "strong" K(b)-restricted (but not D(b)-restricted) CD8 T cell responses led to the suppression of K(b)/A(12-21)-specific CD8 T cell priming and reduced EAD. Thus, direct expression and processing of the "weak" K(b)/A(12-21) epitope in the ER favor priming of autoreactive CD8 T cells.

The diabetogenic, insulin-specific CD8 T cell response primed in the experimental autoimmune diabetes model in RIP-B7.1 mice

Type 1 diabetes mellitus can result from the specific destruction of pancreatic beta cells by autoreactive T cells. As shown here, experimental autoimmune diabetes (EAD) is efficiently induced in RIP-B7.1 mice by preproinsulin (ppins)-encoding DNA vaccines. EAD develops in RIP-B7.1 mice within 3-4 wk after a single immunization with ppins-encoding plasmid DNA. RIP-B7.1 mice develop insulitis, insulin deficiency and hyperglycemia after vaccination with plasmids encoding murine ppins-I or murine ppins-II or human hu-ppins. EAD induction critically depends on CD8 T cells and is independent of CD4 T cells. To be diabetogenic, ppins-specific CD8 T cells had to express IFN-gamma. Neither expression of perforin nor signaling through the type I IFN receptor is an essential component of this pathogenic CD8 T cell phenotype. Using plasmids encoding truncated ppins variants, we show that EAD is only induced by DNA vaccines encoding the insulin A-chain. Diabetogenic CD8 T cells specifically recognize the Kb-restricted A12-21 epitope of the insulin A-chain. The RIP-B7.1 model hence represents an attractive model for the characterization of cellular and molecular events involved in the CD8 T cell-mediated immune pathogenesis of diabetes.

Experimental autoimmune diabetes: a new tool to study mechanisms and consequences of insulin-specific autoimmunity

(Prepro)insulin is considered a central antigenic determinant in diabetic autoimmunity. Insulin has been used to modify diabetes development in NOD mice and prediabetic individuals. We have recently shown that (prepro)insulin can adversely promote diabetes development in murine type 1 diabetes. Based on these findings we have developed experimental autoimmune diabetes (EAD), a new mouse model characterized by (1) CD4(+)/CD8(+) insulitis, induced by (2) (prepro)insulin DNA vaccination, leading to (3) beta cell damage and insulin deficiency in (4) RIP-B7.1 transgenic mice (H-2(b)). EAD develops rapidly in 60-95% of mice after intramuscular, but not intradermal ("gene gun"), vaccination; and DNA plasmids expressing insulin or the insulin analogues glargine, aspart, and lispro are equally potent to induce EAD. Similar to NOD mice, diabetes is adoptively transferred into syngeneic recipients by spleen cell transplantation in a dose-dependent fashion. We have devised a two-stage concept of EAD in which T cell activation and expansion is driven by in vivo autoantigen expression, followed by islet damage that requires beta cell expression of costimulatory B7.1 for disease manifestation. Taken together, EAD is a novel, genetically defined animal model of type 1 diabetes suitable to analyze mechanisms and consequences of insulin-specific T cell autoimmunity.

Can Patients' Likelihood of Benefiting from Primary Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer Be Predicted Before Commencement of Treatment?

PURPOSE

Primary chemotherapy is commonly used in patients with breast cancer to downstage the primary tumour prior to surgery. There is a need to establish, prior to commencement of chemotherapy, predictors of clinical and pathological response, which may then be surrogate markers for patient survival and thus allow identification of patients who are most likely to benefit from such treatment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A total of 104 patients with large and locally advanced breast cancers received an anthracycline/docetaxel-based regimen prior to surgery. Immunohistochemistry was carried out on pre-treatment core biopsies of the tumour to detect hormone receptors (oestrogen-ER; progesterone-PR), a proliferation marker (MIB-1), the oncoprotein Bcl-2, an extracellular matrix degradation enzyme (cathepsin D), p53, and an oestrogen associated protein (pS2). Both clinical and pathological response were assessed following completion of chemotherapy.

RESULTS

Patients whose tumours did not express oestrogen receptor (p = 0.02) or did not express Bcl-2 (p < 0.01) had a better pathological response in a univariate analysis. However, in a multivariate model, it was only the absence of detectable Bcl-2 protein that predicted a better pathological response (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study has identified that patients whose breast cancers are most likely to experience the greatest degree of tumour destruction by primary chemotherapy do not express either oestrogen receptors or Bcl-2. This may have important implications in the selection of patients with breast cancer for primary chemotherapy who are most likely to gain a survival benefit.