O-Linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) Acts as a Glucose Sensor to Epigenetically Regulate the Insulin Gene in Pancreatic Beta Cells.

ABSTRACT: The post-translational protein modification O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) is a proposed nutrient sensor that has been shown to regulate multiple biological pathways. This dynamic and inducible enzymatic modification to intracellular proteins utilizes the end product of the nutrient sensing hexosamine biosynthetic pathway, UDP-GlcNAc, as its substrate donor. Type II diabetic patients have elevated O-GlcNAc-modified proteins within pancreatic beta cells due to chronic hyperglycemia-induced glucose overload, but a molecular role for O-GlcNAc within beta cells remains unclear. Using directed pharmacological approaches in the mouse insulinoma-6 (Min6) cell line, we demonstrate that elevating nuclear O-GlcNAc increases intracellular insulin levels and preserves glucose-stimulated ins

SUBMITTER: Durning SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4732198 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature