TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential splicing of the IA-2 mRNA in pancreas and lymphoid organs as a permissive genetic mechanism for autoimmunity against the IA-2 type 1 diabetes autoantigen
AU - Diez, Juan
AU - Park, Yongsoo
AU - Zeller, Markus
AU - Brown, Douglas
AU - Garza, David
AU - Ricordi, Camillo
AU - Hutton, John
AU - Eisenbarth, George S.
AU - Pugliese, Alberto
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - Type 1 diabetes results from the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic β-cells in genetically susceptible individuals. Growing evidence suggests that genetically determined variation in the expression of self-antigens in thymus may affect the shaping of the T-cell repertoire and susceptibility to autoimmunity. For example, both allelic variation and parent-of-origin effects influence the thymic expression of insulin (a known type 1 diabetes autoantigen), and insulin gene transcription levels in thymus inversely correlate with susceptibility in both humans and transgenic models. It is unclear why patients lose tolerance to IA-2 (insulinoma-associated tyrosine phosphatase-like protein, or islet cell antigen 512 [ICA512]), especially because IA-2 polymorphisms are not associated with type 1 diabetes. We report that alternative splicing determines differential IA-2 expression in islets compared with thymus and spleen. Islets express full-length mRNA and two alternatively spliced transcripts, whereas thymus and spleen exclusively express an alternatively spliced transcript lacking exon 13. This encodes for the transmembrane (TM) and juxta-membrane (JM) domains that comprise several type 1 diabetes target epitopes, supporting the concept that tolerance to IA-2 epitopes not expressed in lymphoid organs may not be achieved. We propose differential splicing as a regulatory mechanism of gene expression playing a permissive role in the development of autoimmune responses to IA-2. Our findings also show that candidate gene expression studies can help in dissecting the complex genetic determinants of a multifactorial disease such as type 1 diabetes.
AB - Type 1 diabetes results from the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic β-cells in genetically susceptible individuals. Growing evidence suggests that genetically determined variation in the expression of self-antigens in thymus may affect the shaping of the T-cell repertoire and susceptibility to autoimmunity. For example, both allelic variation and parent-of-origin effects influence the thymic expression of insulin (a known type 1 diabetes autoantigen), and insulin gene transcription levels in thymus inversely correlate with susceptibility in both humans and transgenic models. It is unclear why patients lose tolerance to IA-2 (insulinoma-associated tyrosine phosphatase-like protein, or islet cell antigen 512 [ICA512]), especially because IA-2 polymorphisms are not associated with type 1 diabetes. We report that alternative splicing determines differential IA-2 expression in islets compared with thymus and spleen. Islets express full-length mRNA and two alternatively spliced transcripts, whereas thymus and spleen exclusively express an alternatively spliced transcript lacking exon 13. This encodes for the transmembrane (TM) and juxta-membrane (JM) domains that comprise several type 1 diabetes target epitopes, supporting the concept that tolerance to IA-2 epitopes not expressed in lymphoid organs may not be achieved. We propose differential splicing as a regulatory mechanism of gene expression playing a permissive role in the development of autoimmune responses to IA-2. Our findings also show that candidate gene expression studies can help in dissecting the complex genetic determinants of a multifactorial disease such as type 1 diabetes.
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U2 - 10.2337/diabetes.50.4.895
DO - 10.2337/diabetes.50.4.895
M3 - Article
C2 - 11289059
AN - SCOPUS:0035083648
VL - 50
SP - 895
EP - 900
JO - Diabetes
JF - Diabetes
SN - 0012-1797
IS - 4
ER -