👤 Barbara Leibiger

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is affecting more than 382 million people worldwide. Although much progress has been made, a comprehensive understanding of the underlying disease mechanism is still lacking. Here we report a role for the β-cell primary cilium in type 2 diabetes susceptibility. We find impaired glucose handling in young Bbs4(-/-) mice before the onset of obesity. Basal body/ciliary perturbation in murine pancreatic islets leads to impaired first phase insulin release ex and in vivo. Insulin receptor is recruited to the cilium of stimulated β-cells and ciliary/basal body integrity is required for activation of downstream targets of insulin signalling. We also observe a reduction in the number of ciliated β-cells along with misregulated ciliary/basal body gene expression in pancreatic islets in a diabetic rat model. We suggest that ciliary function is implicated in insulin secretion and insulin signalling in the β-cell and that ciliary dysfunction could contribute to type 2 diabetes susceptibility. Show less

Dopamine inhibits renal cell Na(+),K(+)-ATPase activity and cell sodium transport by promoting the internalization of active molecules from the plasma membrane, whereas angiotensin II (ATII) stimulates its activity by recruiting new molecules to the plasma membrane. They achieve such effects by activating multiple and distinct signalling molecules in a hierarchical manner. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether dopamine and ATII utilize scaffold organizer proteins as components of their signalling networks, in order to avoid deleterious cross talk. Attention was focused on a multiple PDZ domain protein, Pals-associated tight junction protein (PATJ). Ectopic expression of PATJ in renal epithelial cells in culture was used to study its interaction with components of the dopamine signalling cascade. Similarly, expression of PATJ deletion mutants was employed to analyse its functional relevance during dopamine-, ATII- and insulin-dependent regulation of Na(+),K(+)-ATPase. Dopamine receptors and components of its signalling cascade mediating inhibition of Na(+),K(+)-ATPase interact with PATJ. Inhibition of Na(+),K(+)-ATPase by dopamine was prevented by expression of mutants of PATJ lacking PDZ domains 2, 4 or 5; whereas the stimulatory effect of ATII and insulin on Na(+),K(+)-ATPase was blocked by expression of PATJ lacking PDZ domains 1, 4 or 5. A multiple PDZ domain protein may add functionality to G protein-coupled and tyrosine kinase receptors signalling during regulation of Na(+),K(+)-ATPase. Signalling molecules and effectors can be integrated into a functional network by the scaffold organizer protein PATJ via its multiple PDZ domains. Show less