title: Zinc and its transporters, pancreatic β-cells, and insulin metabolism.
abstract: Zinc is an essential trace metal for life. Two families of zinc transporters, SLC30A (ZNT) and SLC39A (ZIP) are required for maintaining cellular zinc homeostasis. ZNTs function to decrease cytoplasmic zinc concentrations whereas ZIPs do the opposite. Expression of zinc transporters can be tissue/cell-type specific or ubiquitous. Zinc transporters that are limited in tissue/cell distributions usually perform specialized tasks to satisfy biological processes in a given cell. For example, ZNT8 is mainly expressed in β-cells and functions to deliver zinc into granules for insulin maturation and secretion. Many other zinc transporters are also expressed in β-cells. Defects in these zinc transporters have been associated with abnormalities in insulin synthesis, maturation, and secretion and subsequent glucose metabolism. This review focuses on the specific roles of zinc and its transporters in insulin metabolism and describes the current knowledge of the function of zinc transporters in β-cell health in animal knockout mouse models with respect to diabetes development in humans.
authors.affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service/Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Obesity and Metabolism Research Unit, Davis, California, USA; Department of Nutrition, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA. Electronic address: liping.huang@ars.usda.gov.
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D027682:Cation Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism*; D000078790:Insulin Secretion; D050417:Insulin-Secreting Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation; D011384:Proinsulin / Q000378:metabolism; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D021381:Protein Transport; D015032:Zinc / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D027682:Cation Transport Proteins; D007328:Insulin; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D011498:Protein Precursors; C013737:preproinsulin; D011384:Proinsulin; D015032:Zinc
keywords: Diabetes; Glucose; Insulin; SLC30A; SLC39A; ZIP; Zinc; Zinc transporters; ZnT