Taurine rescues pancreatic β‐cell stress by stimulating α‐cell transdifferentiation

Dietary amino acid taurine preferentially targets pancreatic alpha-cells to induce their transdifferentiation into beta-cells, upon the condition of depletion of the latter. AbstractThe semi-essential ubiquitous amino acid taurine has been shown to alleviate obesity and hyperglycemia in humans; however, the pathways underlying the antidiabetic actions have not been characterized. We explored the effect of chronic taurine exposure on cell biology of pancreatic islets, in degenerative type 1-like diabetes. The latter was modeled by small dose of streptozotocin (STZ) injection for 5  days in mice, followed by a 10-day administration of taurine (2% w/v, orally) in the drinking water. Taurine treatment opposed the detrimental changes in islet morphology and β-/α-cell ratio, induced by STZ diabetes, coincidentally with a significant 3.9 ± 0.7-fold enhancement of prolifera tion and 40 ± 5% reduction of apoptosis in β-cells. In line with these findings, the treatment counteracted an upregulation of antioxidant (Sod1,Sod2,Cat,Gpx1) and downregulation of islet expansion (Ngn3,Itgb1) genes induced by STZ, in a pancreatic β-cell line. At the same time, taurine enhanced the transdifferentiation of α-cells into β-cells by 2.3 ± 0.8-fold, echoed in strong non-metabolic elevation of cytosolic Ca2+ levels in pancreatic α-cells. Our data suggest a bimodal effect of dietary taurine on islet β-cell biology, which combines the augmentation of α-/β-cell transdifferentiat...
Source: BioFactors - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research