Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to F Barbetti.
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AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The pathogenesis of permanent diabetes mellitus diagnosed early in life is heterogeneous and, in most cases, not known. We aimed at identifying markers differentiating between non-autoimmune and autoimmune diabetes. METHODS: The clinical, genetic and epidemiological features of 111 diabetic patients (62 males) who received insulin within 12 months of life were studied. RESULTS: The epidemic curve by age of diabetes onset revealed two subsets of patients at a cutoff of 180 days. In the group with diabetes onset before 180 days ("early onset" permanent diabetes) the analysis of HLA susceptibility heterodimers (available for 21 individuals) showed that 76% had a "protective" HLA genotype for Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus as compared to 11.9% (5/42) of the later onset group. Accordingly, "early onset" children were less likely to have autoimmunity markers (4 out of 26 tested) than children with onset after 180 days (13 out 20 tested) (15.4% vs. 65.0%, p<0.01). Of note, 19 out of 20 (or the 95%) patients who were born on the island of Sardinia, an Italian region where the incidence of Type I diabetes is six times higher than continental Italy (33/100,000/year vs 5/100,000/year), were included in the later onset group (>180 days). Small-for-date birthweight, a possible sign of reduced foetal insulin secretion, was more common in the "early onset" group (OR=9.9, 95%-CI 2.6-38.6). CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: These results, obtained in the largest population-based cohort of diabetic infants hitherto reported, suggest that "early onset" permanent diabetes cases differ from later onset cases and that most of them do not have an autoimmune pathogenesis.
AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: We assessed how the role of genes genetic causation in causing maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) alters the response to an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). METHODS: We studied OGTT in 362 MODY subjects, from seven European centres; 245 had glucokinase gene mutations and 117 had Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor -1 alpha ( HNF-1alpha) gene mutations. RESULTS: BMI and age were similar in the genetically defined groups. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) was less than 5.5 mmol/l in 2 % glucokinase subjects and 46 % HNF-1 alpha subjects ( p < 0.0001). Glucokinase subjects had a higher FPG than HNF-1 alpha subjects ([means +/- SD] 6.8 +/- 0.8 vs 6.0 +/- 1.9 mmol/l, p < 0.0001), a lower 2-h value (8.9 +/- 2.3 vs 11.2 +/- 5.2 mmol/l, p < 0.0001) and a lower OGTT increment (2-h - fasting) (2.1 +/- 2.3 vs 5.2 +/- 3.9 mmol/l, p < 0.0001). The relative proportions classified as diabetic depended on whether fasting (38 % vs 22 %, glucokinase vs HNF-1 alpha) or 2-h values (19 % vs 44 %) were used. Fasting and 2-h glucose values were not correlated in the glucokinase subjects ( r = -0.047, p = 0.65) but were strongly correlated in HNF-1 alpha subjects ( r = 0.8, p < 0.001). Insulin concentrations were higher in the glucokinase subjects throughout the OGTT. CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: The genetic cause of the beta-cell defect results in clear differences in both the fasting glucose and the response to an oral glucose load and this can help diagnostic genetic testing in MODY. OGTT results reflect not only the degree of hyperglycaemia but also the underlying cause.
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Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY), an autosomal dominant, early-onset form of type-2 diabetes, is caused by mutations in five different genes all leading to defect(s) in the pancreatic beta cell. However, some patients with this form of diabetes do not bear a mutation in any of the known (MODY1-MODY5) loci, a notion prompting the search for new MODY genes. Clinical and genetic data point toward a defect in beta cell function in the majority of patients with MODY, and partners of the glucose-sensing device are reasonable functional candidates. The high-capacity glucose transporter GLUT2 has the ideal kinetic features for performing this task. However, complete GLUT2 deficiency in humans leads to hepato-renal glycogenosis (Fanconi-Bickel syndrome), and heterozygous GLUT2 mutations apparently behave in a recessive manner. Furthermore, in the human beta cell GLUT1 mRNA is predominant when compared to GLUT2 and glucose influx appears to be largely mediated by this low-Km transporter. Thus, we looked for the presence of sequence variants by polymerase chain reaction and single-strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) within the GLUT1 gene in 90 Italian pedigrees negative at the search for mutations in glucokinase (MODY2) and hepatocyte nuclear factor-1alpha (MODY3), the two genes responsible for about 60% of MODY cases in Italian children. We found three already described silent mutations and a new single base deletion in position -173 of the 5' regulatory region. The -173de1A variant, which was detected in the heterozygous or homozygous state in 30.8% of MODY patients examined and is located in a Nuclear Factor Y binding sequence, is not associated with hyperglycemia in affected relatives of MODY probands. In conclusion, it appears from these results that the glucose transporter gene GLUT1 is unlikely to play a major role in the etiology of MODY diabetes.
AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of glucokinase gene mutations in Italian children with MODY and to investigate genotype/phenotype correlations of the mutants. METHODS: Screening for sequence variants in the glucokinase gene was performed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and direct sequencing in 132 children with maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) and in 9 children with chronic fasting hyperglycaemia but without laboratory evidence for Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus and with normoglycaemic parents ("non-classical" MODY). RESULTS: Altogether 54 mutations were identified in the MODY group (54/132 or 41%) and 3 among the "non-classical" MODY individuals (3/9 or 33%). Paternity testing indicated that the latter mutations have arisen de novo. Mean fasting plasma glucose concentrations of the children with the mutant glucokinase was in the expected impaired fasting glucose range. In contrast, results of the oral glucose tolerance test showed a wide range from normal glucose tolerance (Group 1: 2-h OGTT = 6.7 +/- 1.1 mmol/l; 11 patients) to diabetes (Group 2: 2-h OGTT = 11.5 +/- 0.5 mmol/l; 9 patients), with the remaining in the impaired glucose tolerance range. Disruptive mutations (i.e. nonsense, frameshifts, splice-site) were equally represented in Groups 1 and 2 and were not clearly associated with an impaired first-phase insulin response. Surprisingly, 5 out of 11 children (or 45%) in Group 1 were found to be overweight but no children in Group 2 were overweight. Sensitivity index (SI), calculated by a recently described method, was found to be significantly lower in Group 2 than in Group 1 (SI Group 2 = 0.0013 +/- 0.0009 ml Kg(-1) min(-1)/muU/ml; SI Group 1 = 0.0068 +/- 0.0048, p < 0.0035). CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: Mutations in glucokinase are the first cause of MODY among Italian children selected through a low threshold limit of fasting plasma glucose (i. e. > 5.5 mmol). The lack of correlation between the molecular severity of glucokinase mutations, insulin secretion at intravenous glucose tolerance test and differences in glucose tolerance suggests that factors outside the beta cell are also involved in determining post-load glucose concentrations in these subjects. Our results seem to indicate that the differences observed in the 2-h responses at the OGTT among children with MODY 2 could be related to individual differences in insulin sensitivity.
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Increasing evidence suggests that defects in genes encoding transcription factors that are expressed in the pancreatic beta-cells may be important contributors to the genetic basis of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) now exists in five subtypes (MODY1-5), four of which are caused by mutations in transcription factors hepatocyte nuclear factor-4alpha (HNF-4alpha), HNF-1alpha, insulin promoter factor-1 (IPF-1), and HNF-1beta (MODY1, -3, -4, and -5). Recent evidence from the British population even suggested that IPF-1 may be a predisposing gene for type 2 diabetes. Thus, highlighting the potential role of this transcription factor in the genetic basis of Danish and Italian MODY as well as in Danish patients with late-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus, we have examined the human IPF-1 gene for mutations by single strand conformation polymorphism and heteroduplex analysis in 200 Danish patients with late-onset type 2 diabetes and in 44 Danish and Italian MODY patients. In the patients with late-onset type 2 diabetes we identified a noncoding G insertion/deletion polymorphism at nucleotide -108, a silent G54G, and a rare missense D76N variant. Moreover, a Danish MODY patient was carrier of an A140T variant. Neither the D76N nor the A140T segregated with diabetes, and their transcriptional activation of the human insulin promoter expressed in vitro was indistinguishable from that of the wild type (115 +/- 21% and 84 +/- 12% vs. 100%). We conclude that variants in IPF-1 are not a common cause of MODY or late-onset type 2 diabetes in the Caucasian population, and that in terms of insulin transcription both the N76 and the T140 mutations are likely to represent functionally normal IPF-1 variants with no direct role in the pathogenesis of MODY or late-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus.
AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: A point mutation, P193L, in the insulin receptor alpha subunit, has been previously identified in a patient affected by an extreme form of insulin resistance due to reduced insulin binding. In our study we investigated the cellular mechanisms by which P193L substitution causes a reduction of insulin receptor numbers on the cell surface. METHODS: Mutated insulin receptors have been generated and expressed in COS1 cells. Transcription as well as translation of P193L insulin receptor have been measured and compared with wild type insulin receptor. RESULTS: P193L insulin receptor is normally transcribed and progresses to the step of insulin proreceptor, which does not proceed to dimerization, resulting in the accumulation of the 210 kDa form. These findings suggest that the P193L insulin proreceptor is retained in the endoplasmic reticulum, where several molecular chaperones drive the folding of protein precursors. Therefore the interaction between mutated insulin receptor precursor and two endoplasmic reticulum resident chaperones (GRP78 and calnexin) were investigated. P193L insulin proreceptor co-immunoprecipitates with greater amounts of GRP78 and its interaction with calnexin is greatly delayed compared with wild type insulin receptor precursor. Co-transfection of wild type and mutated insulin receptors causes a considerable reduction of cell surface wild type insulin receptors. CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: P193 is critical for insulin proreceptor folding. The monomeric form of P193L insulin proreceptor is retained in the endoplasmic reticulum by a calnexin and GRP78 mediated mechanism that reduces mature insulin receptor expression on the cell surface.
The finding of a reduced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis in the skeletal muscle of glucose-tolerant first-degree relatives of patients with NIDDM, as well as in cultured fibroblasts and skeletal muscle cells isolated from NIDDM patients, has been interpreted as evidence for a genetic involvement in the disease. The mode of inheritance of the common forms of NIDDM is as yet unclear, but the prevailing hypothesis supports a polygenic model. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the putative inheritable defects of insulin-stimulated muscle glycogen synthesis might be caused by genetic variability in the genes encoding proteins shown by biochemical evidence to be involved in insulin-stimulated glycogen synthesis in skeletal muscle. In 70 insulin-resistant Danish NIDDM patients, mutational analysis by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism-heteroduplex analysis was performed on genomic DNA or skeletal muscle-derived cDNAs encoding glycogenin, protein phosphatase inhibitor-1, phophatase targeting to glycogen, protein kinase B-alpha and -beta, and the phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1. Although a number of silent variants were identified in some of the examined genes, we found no evidence for the hypothesis that the defective insulin-stimulated glycogen synthesis in skeletal muscle in NIDDM is caused by structural changes in the genes encoding the known components of the insulin-sensitive glycogen synthesis pathway of skeletal muscle.
Mutation analysis of DNA from cultured amniocytes with absent branched-chain alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase activity revealed a C to T transition producing a nonsense mutation (R242X) in exon 7 of the gene encoding the E1a subunit of this multienzme complex (BCKDHA). This pregnancy occured in a large consanguinous pedigree with mutiple individuals with maple syrup urine disease (MSUD). PCR amplification of the region surrounding exon 7 allowed the identification of this mutation as well as two other previously identified mutations which cause MSUD.
Leptin, a hormone secreted by adipocytes, decreases food intake and increases energy expenditure. The role of insulin in the regulation of leptin secretion is poorly understood and is still a topic of debate. Insulin increases leptin mRNA synthesis in rodents, but in humans, the available data are discordant. To investigate the role of chronic hyperinsulinemia in the regulation of plasma leptin concentrations, we studied 13 patients with surgically confirmed insulinoma before and after tumor removal, along with 15 healthy control subjects matched for sex, age, and BMI. Immunoreactive plasma leptin levels were measured by radioimmunoassay; leptin mRNA levels were also determined by reverse transcription-competitive polymerase chain reaction in a subgroup of six patients with insulinoma and six control subjects. All determinations were made with subjects in the fasting state. Plasma leptin concentrations correlated positively with leptin mRNA levels (r = 0.880, P < 0.001). Leptin levels, both plasma protein and mRNA, were significantly higher in the insulinoma patients than in the control subjects (plasma protein: 17.5 +/- 3.6 vs. 2.9 +/- 0.4 ng/ml, respectively, P < 0.001; mRNA: 0.98 +/- 0.33 vs. 0.19 +/- 0.064 amol/microg RNA, respectively, P < 0.05), and they correlated positively with fasting plasma insulin levels in the patients with insulinoma (plasma protein: r = 0.686, P < 0.01; mRNA: 0.796, P < 0.05). Finally, removal of the insulin-secreting tumor was followed by the normalization of plasma leptin levels. In summary, in patients with insulinoma, 1) plasma leptin levels and leptin mRNA are elevated; 2) a direct relationship exists between leptin, both circulating protein and mRNA, and insulin concentrations; and 3) plasma leptin returns to normal levels after tumor removal. These data, therefore, support a role for insulin in the chronic regulation of leptin gene expression.
Glycogen synthesis is impaired in first degree relatives of subjects with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and genes relevant to this metabolic pathway are considered reasonable candidates in the pathogenesis of the disease. In skeletal muscle the de novo synthesis of glycogen in primed by an enzyme named glycogenin. We have cloned the glycogenin cDNA from human skeletal muscle mRNA: human glucogenin is a 333 amino acid protein exhibiting 93% identity with rabbit glycogenin. A single transcript of about 2.4 kb, prominent in skeletal muscle, was detected by Northern blot analysis. In situ hybridization unequivocally located the human glycogenin gene to chromosome 3q25.1. Furthermore, we mapped two intronless glycogenin-related sequences to human chromosomes 12 and 13.
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Insulin initiates its biological response by binding to the extracellular domain of the insulin receptor. The N-terminal half of the alpha-subunit contains several repeats of a loosely conserved motif consisting of a central glycine plus several hydrophobic amino acid residues upstream from the glycine, Hy phi-Xaa-Xaa-Hy phi-Xaa-Hy phi-Hy phi-Xaa-Gly (where Hy phi represents a hydrophobic amino acid residue). This structural motif has been proposed to be important in determining the three-dimensional structure of the insulin binding domain. We have identified two naturally occurring mutant alleles of the insulin receptor gene in an insulin-resistant patient, substitution of Ala for Val28 and Arg for Gly366. The mutations alter conserved amino acid residues in two distinct repeats of the structural motif described above. When mutant cDNAs were expressed in NIH-3T3 cells, both mutations severely impaired proteolytic processing of the proreceptor to mature alpha- and beta-subunits. Transport of mutant receptors to the plasma membrane was also impaired. However, the minority (< 10%) of receptors that were eventually transported to the plasma membrane retained the ability to bind insulin with normal affinity and to undergo insulin-stimulated phosphorylation. In conclusion, the effects of these naturally occurring mutations provide experimental support for the importance of the conserved glycine-containing structural motifs described above. By interrupting these structural motifs, the Ala28 and Arg366 mutations prevent normal folding of the insulin receptor alpha-subunit, thereby inhibiting post-translational processing and intracellular transport of the mutant receptors.
Molecular scanning techniques, such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), greatly facilitate screening candidate genes for mutations. We have used DGGE to screen for mutations in the insulin receptor gene in a family in which four of five daughters were affected by type A insulin resistance in association with acanthosis nigricans and hyperandrogenism. DGGE did not detect mutations in any of the 22 exons of the insulin receptor gene. Nevertheless, Southern blot analysis suggested that there was a deletion of exon 3 in the other paternal allele of the insulin receptor gene. Analysis of the father's cDNA confirmed that exon 3 was deleted from mRNA molecules derived from one of his two alleles of the insulin receptor gene. Furthermore, the father was found to be hemizygous for a polymorphic sequence (GACAsp at codon 234) in exon 3 that was not inherited by any of the five daughters. Instead, all five daughters inherited the paternal allele with the deletion mutation. We did not detect mutations in the mother's insulin receptor gene. Furthermore, the clinical syndrome did not segregate with either of the mother's two alleles of the insulin receptor gene. Although the youngest daughter inherited the mutant allele from her father, she was not clinically affected. The explanation for the incomplete penetrance is not known. These results emphasize the importance of specifically searching for deletion mutations when screening candidate genes for mutations. Furthermore, the existence of apparently asymptomatic carriers of mutations in the insulin receptor gene, such as the father in the present study, suggests that the prevalence of mutations in the insulin receptor gene may be higher than would be predicted on the basis of the observed prevalence of patients with extreme insulin resistance.