The Transcriptional Response in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells Exposed to Insulin: A Dynamic Gene Expression Approach

BACKGROUND: In diabetes chronic hyperinsulinemia contributes to the instability of the atherosclerotic plaque and stimulates cellular proliferation through the activation of the MAP kinases, which in turn regulate cellular proliferation. However, it is not known whether insulin itself could increase the transcription of specific genes for cellular proliferation in the endothelium. Hence, the characterization of transcriptional modifications in endothelium is an important step for a better understanding of the mechanism of insulin action and the relationship between endothelial cell dysfunction and insulin resistance. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The transcriptional response of endothelial cells in the 440 minutes following insulin stimulation was monitored using microarrays and compared to a control condition. About 1700 genes were selected as differentially expressed based on their treated minus control profile, thus allowing the detection of even small but systematic changes in gene expression. Genes were clustered in 7 groups according to their time expression profile and classified into 15 functional categories that can support the biological effects of insulin, based on Gene Ontology enrichment analysis. In terms of endothelial function, the most prominent processes affected were NADH dehydrogenase activity, N-terminal myristoylation domain binding, nitric-oxide synthase regulator activity and growth factor binding. Pathway-based enrichment analysis revealed "Electron Transport Chain" significantly enriched. Results were validated on genes belonging to "Electron Transport Chain" pathway, using quantitative RT-PCR. CONCLUSIONS: As far as we know, this is the first systematic study in the literature monitoring transcriptional response to insulin in endothelial cells, in a time series microarray experiment. Since chronic hyperinsulinemia contributes to the instability of the atherosclerotic plaque and stimulates cellular proliferation, some of the genes identified in the present work are potential novel candidates in diabetes complications related to endothelial dysfunction

Deficiency of the Mitochondrial Electron Transport Chain in Muscle Does Not Cause Insulin Resistance

It has been proposed that muscle insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes is due to a selective decrease in the components of the mitochondrial electron transport chain and results from accumulation of toxic products of incomplete fat oxidation. The purpose of the present study was to test this hypothesis.Rats were made severely iron deficient, by means of an iron-deficient diet. Iron deficiency results in decreases of the iron containing mitochondrial respiratory chain proteins without affecting the enzymes of the fatty acid oxidation pathway. Insulin resistance was induced by feeding iron-deficient and control rats a high fat diet. Skeletal muscle insulin resistance was evaluated by measuring glucose transport activity in soleus muscle strips. Mitochondrial proteins were measured by Western blot. Iron deficiency resulted in a decrease in expression of iron containing proteins of the mitochondrial respiratory chain in muscle. Citrate synthase, a non-iron containing citrate cycle enzyme, and long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (LCAD), used as a marker for the fatty acid oxidation pathway, were unaffected by the iron deficiency. Oleate oxidation by muscle homogenates was increased by high fat feeding and decreased by iron deficiency despite high fat feeding. The high fat diet caused severe insulin resistance of muscle glucose transport. Iron deficiency completely protected against the high fat diet-induced muscle insulin resistance.The results of the study argue against the hypothesis that a deficiency of the electron transport chain (ETC), and imbalance between the ETC and β-oxidation pathways, causes muscle insulin resistance

Plasma Metabolomic Profiles Reflective of Glucose Homeostasis in Non-Diabetic and Type 2 Diabetic Obese African-American Women

Insulin resistance progressing to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is marked by a broad perturbation of macronutrient intermediary metabolism. Understanding the biochemical networks that underlie metabolic homeostasis and how they associate with insulin action will help unravel diabetes etiology and should foster discovery of new biomarkers of disease risk and severity. We examined differences in plasma concentrations of >350 metabolites in fasted obese T2DM vs. obese non-diabetic African-American women, and utilized principal components analysis to identify 158 metabolite components that strongly correlated with fasting HbA1c over a broad range of the latter (r = −0.631; p<0.0001). In addition to many unidentified small molecules, specific metabolites that were increased significantly in T2DM subjects included certain amino acids and their derivatives (i.e., leucine, 2-ketoisocaproate, valine, cystine, histidine), 2-hydroxybutanoate, long-chain fatty acids, and carbohydrate derivatives. Leucine and valine concentrations rose with increasing HbA1c, and significantly correlated with plasma acetylcarnitine concentrations. It is hypothesized that this reflects a close link between abnormalities in glucose homeostasis, amino acid catabolism, and efficiency of fuel combustion in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. It is speculated that a mechanism for potential TCA cycle inefficiency concurrent with insulin resistance is “anaplerotic stress” emanating from reduced amino acid-derived carbon flux to TCA cycle intermediates, which if coupled to perturbation in cataplerosis would lead to net reduction in TCA cycle capacity relative to fuel delivery

Non-random peroxidation of different classes of membrane phospholipids in live cells detected by metabolically integrated cis-parinaric acid

Quantitative assays of lipid peroxidation in intact, living cells are essential for evaluating oxidative damage from various sources and for testing the efficacy of antioxidant interventions. We report a novel method based on the use of cis-parinaric acid (PnA) as a reporter molecule for membrane lipid peroxidation in intact mammalian cells. Using four different cell lines (human leukemia HL-60, K562 and K/VP.5 cells, and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) fibroblasts), we developed a technique to metabolically integrate PnA into all major classes of membrane phospholipids, i.e., phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylinositol and cardiolipin, that can be quantified by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Integrated PnA constituted less than 1% of lipid fatty acid residues, suggesting that membrane structure and characteristics were not significantly altered. Low concentrations (20-40 mu M) of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BuOOH) caused selective oxidation of PnA residues in phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine of K562 cells and K/VP.5 cells while cell viability was unaffected. At higher t-BuOOH concentrations (exceeding 100 mu M), however, a progressive, random oxidation of all major phospholipid classes occurred and was accompanied by significant cell death. In HL-60 cells, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine and cardiolipin were sensitive to low concentrations of t-BuOOH, while phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylinositol were not affected. Phosphatidylinositol was the only phospholipid that responded to the low concentrations of t-BuOOH in CHO cells, At high t-BuOOH concentrations, again, all phospholipid classes underwent extensive oxidation, All phospholipids were nearly equally affected by peroxidation induced by a initiator of peroxyl radicals, 2,2'-azobis-(2,4-dimethylvaleronitrile) (AMVN), in K562 cells. In gamma-irradiated (4-128 Gy) CHO cells, phosphatidylserine was the most affected phospholipid class (34% peroxidation) followed by phosphatidylinositol (24% peroxidation) while the other three phospholipid classes were apparently unaffected, Since loss of PnA fluorescence is a direct result of irreparable oxidative loss of its conjugated double bond system, the method described allows for selective and sensitive monitoring of oxidative stress in live cells without interference from cell repair mechanisms