Shinya Ohagi

Experiments using recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing rat proinsulin I coinfected into COS-7 cells with recombinant vaccinia virus expressing human furin, human PC2, mouse PC3 (subtilisin-related proprotein convertases 1-3, respectively), or yeast Kex2 indicate that in this system both Kex2 and furin produce mature insulin, whereas PC2 selectively cleaves proinsulin at the C-peptide-A-chain junction. This is a property consistent with its probable identity with the rat insulinoma granule type II proinsulin processing activity as described by Davidson et al. [Davidson, H. W., Rhodes, C. J. & Hutton, J. C. (1988) Nature (London) 333, 93-96]. PC3 generates mature insulin but cleaves preferentially at the proinsulin B-chain-C-peptide junction. This pattern of cleavage by PC3 is similar, but not identical, to that of the highly B-chain-C-peptide junction-selective type I activity as described by Davidson et al., perhaps due to the presence of a P4 arginine residue near the C-peptide-A-chain junction unique to the rat proinsulins. These results along with data presented on the expression of both PC2 and PC3 in islet beta cells strongly support the conclusion that these proteases are involved in the conversion of proinsulin to insulin in vivo.

Many studies suggest that amylin, which is cosecreted with insulin from islet beta-cells, is a biologically active peptide and modulates plasma glucose levels. We therefore scanned the amylin gene for mutations in 294 Japanese NIDDM patients by single-strand conformational polymorphism, and we found a single heterozygous missense mutation (Ser-->Gly at position 20: S20G mutation) in 12 NIDDM patients (frequency 4.1%). None of the 187 nondiabetic subjects or 59 IDDM patients had the mutation. Of 12 patients carrying the mutation, 8 were diagnosed as having NIDDM at a relatively early age (< or = 35 years), and they had severe diabetes and strong family histories of late-onset NIDDM. On the other hand, the remaining four patients were diagnosed as having NIDDM after age 51, and they had mild diabetes without family histories of diabetes. In high-performance liquid chromatography analysis, a small amount (16%) of amylin immunoreactivity appeared in the position corresponding to normal amylin and a much larger amount (84%) appeared in the position corresponding to mutant amylin. These findings suggest that the S20G mutation of the amylin gene may play a partial role in the pathogenesis of early-onset NIDDM in the Japanese population and may also provide an important model to investigate the true physiological action of amylin.

In recent studies we have identified PC2 and PC3, members of a family of serine proteases that are related structurally to subtilisin, and have provided evidence that these are involved in the tissue-specific processing of prohormones and neuropeptides. PC2 is expressed at high levels in the islets of Langerhans, where it participates in the processing of proinsulin to insulin (S.P.S. and D.F.S., unpublished data). To evaluate the regulated expression of the human PC2 (hPC2) gene we have analyzed its structure and characterized its promoter. A map of the gene was constructed by using 11 clones isolated from two human genomic DNA libraries. The gene spans greater than 130 kilobase pairs and consists of 12 exons. Comparison with the structure of the gene encoding human furin, another member of this superfamily, revealed a high degree of conservation of exon-intron junctions. The hPC2 gene was localized to chromosome 20, band p11.2. The 5' flanking region of the hPC2 gene is very G+C-rich and contains six potential Sp1 binding sites but no TATA or CAAT box. Expression of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter fusions containing the putative promoter region was observed to occur in beta TC-3 mouse insulinoma cells but not in HepG2 human hepatoma cells, consistent with the known tissue-specific pattern of expression of the hPC2 gene. Analysis of the level of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity with several deletion mutants identified the region from -1100 to -539 from the translation start site as essential for hPC2 promoter activity.