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bioRxiv · 10.1101/832493

Stathmin-2 Mediates Glucagon Secretion from Pancreatic α-Cells

Asadi, F.·Dhanvantari, S.
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Abstract

Inhibition of glucagon hypersecretion from pancreatic -cells is an appealing strategy for the treatment of diabetes. Our hypothesis is that proteins that associate with glucagon within alpha cell secretory granules will regulate glucagon secretion, and may provide druggable targets for controlling abnormal glucagon secretion in diabetes. Recently, we identified a dynamic glucagon interactome within the secretory granules of the cell line, TC1-6, and showed that select proteins within the interactome could modulate glucagon secretion. In the present study, we show that one of these interactome proteins, the neuronal protein stathmin-2, is expressed in aTC1-6 cells and in mouse pancreatic alpha cells, and is a novel regulator of glucagon secretion. Stathmin-2 was co-secreted with glucagon in response to 55 mM K+, and immunofluorescence confocal microscopy showed co-localization of stathmin-2 with glucagon and the secretory granule markers chromogranin A and VAMP-2 in TC1-6 cells. In mouse pancreatic islets, Stathmin-2 co-localized with glucagon, but not with insulin, indicating that it is an alpha cell protein. To show a function for stathmin-2 in regulating glucagon secretion, we showed that siRNA - mediated depletion of stathmin-2 in aTC1-6 cells caused glucagon secretion to become constitutive without any effect on proglucagon mRNA levels, while overexpression of stathmin-2 completely abolished both basal and K+-stimulated glucagon secretion. Overexpression of stathmin-2 increased the localization of glucagon into the endosomal-lysosomal compartment, while depletion of stathmin-2 reduced the endosomal localization of glucagon. Therefore, we describe stathmin-2 as having a novel role as an alpha cell secretory granule protein that modulates glucagon secretion via trafficking through the endosomal-lysosomal system. These findings describe a potential new pathway for the regulation of glucagon secretion, and may have implications for controlling glucagon hypersecretion in diabetes.

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Asadi, F., Dhanvantari, S.. 2019-11-06. Stathmin-2 Mediates Glucagon Secretion from Pancreatic α-Cells. https://doi.org/10.1101/832493

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