RNA-seq of brown adipocyte mouse cells treated with different concentrations of DNA origami structures with organized insulin molecules or free insulin molecules against untreated controls
Insulin binds the insulin receptor (IR), which in turn has showed to form nanoclusters at the cell membrane. Trying to exploit the nanoscale spatial organization of IR, we developed rod-like insulin-DNA-origami nanostructures carrying different numbers of insulin molecules. These structures (referred to as NanoRods, or NR) were then utilized to investigate receptor activity to spatial distribution of insulin molecules. One part of this investigation was to study the transcriptional response of brown adipocytes treated with NR bound to one insulin (NR-1) and NR bound to seven insulin (NR-7), and compare to untreated controls. Furthermore, free insulin was also used to ensure that similar pathways were activated when using NR-bound insulin.