title: Acceleration of autoimmune diabetes in Rheb-congenic NOD mice with β-cell-specific mTORC1 activation.
abstract: The protein Ras homolog enriched in brain (Rheb) is a Ras-like small GTPase that activates the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), which promotes cell growth. We previously generated transgenic C57BL/6 mice overexpressing Rheb in β-cells (B6(Rheb)), which exhibited increased β-cell size and improved glucose tolerance with higher insulin secretion than wild type C57BL/6 mice. The mice also showed resistance to obesity-induced hyperglycemia, a model of type 2 diabetes, and to multiple low-dose-streptozotocin (MLDS)-induced hyperglycemia, a model of type 1 diabetes (T1D). To investigate whether the effects of mTORC1 activation by Rheb in B6(Rheb) mice would also be evident in NOD mice, a spontaneous autoimmune T1D model, we created two NOD mouse lines overexpressing Rheb in their β-cells (NOD(Rheb); R3 and R20). We verified Rheb overexpression in β-cells, the relative activation of mTORC1 and β-cell enlargement. By 35 weeks of age, diabetes incidence was significantly greater in the R3 line and tended to be greater in the R20 line than in NOD mice. Histological analysis demonstrated that insulitis was significantly accelerated in 12-week-old R3 NOD(Rheb) mice compared with NOD mice. Furthermore, serum insulin autoantibody (IAA) expression was significantly higher than that of NOD mice. We also examined whether complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) treatment alone or with glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog would reverse the hyperglycemia of NOD(Rheb) mice; unexpectedly, almost none achieved normoglycemia. In summary, diabetes progression was significantly accelerated rather than prevented in NOD(Rheb) mice. Our results suggest that the β-cell enlargement might merely enhance the autoimmunity of pathogenic T-cells against islets, leading to acceleration of autoimmune diabetes. We conclude that not only enlargement but also regeneration of β-cells in addition to the prevention of β-cell destruction will be required for the ideal therapy of autoimmune T1D.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal and Geriatric Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirotomo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Hisafumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yasuda
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moriyama
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Mami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagata
authors.forename: Kenta
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yokono
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D050417:Insulin-Secreting Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D000076222:Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1; D051379:Mice; D020297:Mice, Congenic; D016688:Mice, Inbred NOD; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D046912:Multiprotein Complexes; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000235:genetics*; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D000076205:Ras Homolog Enriched in Brain Protein; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
chemical_list: D046912:Multiprotein Complexes; D009479:Neuropeptides; D011506:Proteins; D000076205:Ras Homolog Enriched in Brain Protein; C490213:Rheb protein, mouse; D000076222:Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins