Effect on insulin production sorting and secretion by major histocompatibility complex class II gene expression in the pancreatic beta-cell of transgenic mice.

Expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II protein in islet beta-cells of transgenic mice causes severe diabetes without an attendant autoimmune component. Little is known of the aberrant beta-cell function and site of biological lesions responsible for the diabetic state. Therefore, changes in (pro)insulin production, processing, sorting, storage, and secretion were evaluated using the in vitro perfused pancreas from male hyperglycemic BALB/cBYJ Tg (O pinsproA alpha d pinsproA beta d) mice and a RIA capable of detecting mouse insulin or proinsulin with quantitative equivalency. Results were compared to control pancreases from normal BALB/cBYJ mice. Extractable pancreatic insulin plus proinsulin content in the transgenics was 4% of normal. Normal pancreases responded characteristically with a diphasic insulin release during 30-min stimulation by glucose, a response that was enhanced by subsequent forskolin. In contrast, hormone release from transgenic pancreases was undetectable; based on the sensitivity of the immunoassay, fractional secretion of the residual pancreatic hormone content from the transgenic pancreases was less than 25% of normal. Proinsulin or insulin constitutive release was also not detected in the absence or presence of glucose-containing stimuli even when experiments were extended to 3 h. In contrast, fractional secretion in response to nonglucose stimuli (carbachol-leucine and arginine-leucine) was greater than normal from the transgenic diabetic pancreases. Responses to glucose stimuli did not normalize even after 90 min in the absence of glucose. In other experiments, pancreases were stimulated with carbachol/leucine/forskolin for 90 min, and the proportion of proinsulin to insulin released by the regulated pathway was determined after Sep-Pak and HPLC separation of combined eluates. Proinsulin was undetectable (and, therefore, accounted for less than 10% of the total hormone secretion). It is concluded from the observations of hyperglycemia, low pancreatic insulin content, and impaired release that insulin production in the pancreas of the MHC diabetic transgenic is severely depressed. The limited insulin production and chronic hyperglycemia do not (as speculated) cause missorting to a constitutive pathway or impaired conversion of proinsulin to insulin, since a proportionately increased proinsulin release does not occur. Although the response of the secretory process to glucose-containing stimuli is almost completely destroyed, fractional secretion in response to nonglucose stimuli is enhanced. The possible contribution of hyperglycemia-induced beta-cell desensitization or specific lesions in the glucose recognition signals induced by MHC expression are discussed. Results suggest that expression of MHC class II protein causes highly specific beta-cell lesions which, in themselves, could be a contributing factor in human insulin-dependent diabetes.