Glucose-induced translational control of proinsulin biosynthesis is proportional to preproinsulin mRNA levels in islet beta-cells but not regulated via a positive feedback of secreted insulin.

Proinsulin biosynthesis is regulated in response to nutrients, most notably glucose. In the short term (</=2h) this is due to increases in the translation of pre-existing mRNA. However, prolonging glucose stimulation (24 h) also increases preproinsulin mRNA levels. It has been proposed that secreted insulin from the pancreatic beta-cell regulates its own synthesis through a positive autocrine feedback mechanism. Here the comparative contributions of translation and mRNA levels on the levels of proinsulin biosynthesis were examined in isolated pancreatic islets. Also, the autocrine role of insulin upon four beta-cell functions (insulin secretion, proinsulin translation, preproinsulin mRNA levels, and total protein synthesis) was investigated in parallel. The results showed that proinsulin biosynthesis is regulated, in the short term (1 h), solely at the level of translation, through an approximately 6-fold increase in response to glucose (2.8 mm versus 16.7 mm glucose). In the longer term, when preproinsulin mRNA levels have increased approximately 2-fold, a corresponding increase was observed in the fold response of proinsulin translation to a stimulatory glucose concentration (>/=10-fold). Importantly, neither exogenously added nor secreted insulin were found to play any role in regulating insulin secretion, proinsulin translation, preproinsulin mRNA levels, or total protein synthesis. The results presented here indicate that long term nutritional state sets the preproinsulin mRNA level in the beta-cell at which translation control regulates short term changes in rates of proinsulin biosynthesis in response to glucose, but this is not mediated by any autocrine effect of insulin.