A δ-cell subpopulation with pro-β cell identity contributes to efficient age-independent recovery in a zebrafish diabetes model

Abstract

Restoring damaged b-cells in diabetic patients by harnessing the plasticity of other pancreatic cells raises the questions of the efficiency of the process and of the functionality of the new Insulin-expressing cells. To overcome the weak regenerative capacity of mammals, we used regeneration-prone zebrafish to study b-cells arising following destruction. We show that most new insulin cells differ from the original b-cells as they coexpress Somatostatin and Insulin. These bihormonal cells are abundant, functional and able to normalize glycemia. Their formation in response to b-cell destruction is fast, efficient and age-independent. Bihormonal cells are transcriptionally close to a subset of d-cells that we identified in control islets and which are characterized by the expression of somatostatin 1.1 (sst1.1) and by genes essential for glucose-induced Insulin secretion in β-cells such as pdx1, slc2a2 and gck. We observed in vivo the conversion of monohormonal sst1.1-expressing cells to sst1.1+ ins+ bihormonal cells following b-cell destruction. Our findings support the conclusion that sst1.1 d-cells possess a pro-b identity enabling them to contribute to the neogenesis of Insulin-producing cells during regeneration. This work unveils that abundant and functional bihormonal cells benefit to diabetes recovery in zebrafish.

Data availability

RNA sequencing data have been deposited at NCBI GEO

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Claudio Andrés Carril Pardo

    Zebrafish Development and Disease Models laboratory, GIGA-Stem Cells, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Laura Massoz

    Zebrafish Development and Disease Models laboratory, GIGA-Stem Cells, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Marie A Dupont

    Zebrafish Development and Disease Models laboratory, GIGA-Stem Cells, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. David Bergemann

    Zebrafish Development and Disease Models laboratory, GIGA-Stem Cells, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Jordane Bourdouxhe

    Zebrafish Development and Disease Models laboratory, GIGA-Stem Cells, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Arnaud Lavergne

    GIGA-Genomics core facility, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Estefania Tarifeño-Saldivia

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  8. Christian SM Helker

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  9. Didier YR Stainier true

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    Didier YR Stainier, Senior editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0382-0026
  10. Bernard Peers

    Zebrafish Development and Disease Models laboratory, GIGA-Stem Cells, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  11. Marianne M Voz

    Zebrafish Development and Disease Models laboratory, GIGA-Stem Cellslls, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  12. Isabelle Manfroid

    Zebrafish Development and Disease Models laboratory, GIGA-Stem Cells, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
    For correspondence
    Isabelle.Manfroid@uliege.be
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-3445-3764

Funding

Chilean National Agency for Research and Development , Becas Chile (Scholarship,72170660)

  • Claudio Andrés Carril Pardo

National Belgian Funds for Scientific Research (FRIA PhD fellowship)

  • Arnaud Lavergne

National Belgian Funds for Scientific Research (FRIA PhD fellowship)

  • Laura Massoz

National Belgian Funds for Scientific Research (EoS Program,30826052)

  • Marie A Dupont

National Belgian Funds for Scientific Research (FRIA PhD fellowship)

  • David Bergemann

National Belgian Funds for Scientific Research (EoS Program,30826052)

  • Jordane Bourdouxhe

European Regional Development Fund (Biomed Hub Technology Support,2.2.1/996)

  • Arnaud Lavergne

National Belgian Funds for Scientific Research

  • Bernard Peers

National Belgian Funds for Scientific Research

  • Isabelle Manfroid

National Belgian Funds for Scientific Research

  • Marianne M Voz

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All experiments were carried out in compliance with the European Union and Belgian law and with the approval of the ULiège Ethical Committee for experiments with laboratory animals (approval numbers 14-1662, 16-1872, 19-2083, 21-2353).

Copyright

© 2022, Carril Pardo et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 1,922
    views
  • 336
    downloads
  • 28
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Claudio Andrés Carril Pardo
  2. Laura Massoz
  3. Marie A Dupont
  4. David Bergemann
  5. Jordane Bourdouxhe
  6. Arnaud Lavergne
  7. Estefania Tarifeño-Saldivia
  8. Christian SM Helker
  9. Didier YR Stainier true
  10. Bernard Peers
  11. Marianne M Voz
  12. Isabelle Manfroid
(2022)
A δ-cell subpopulation with pro-β cell identity contributes to efficient age-independent recovery in a zebrafish diabetes model
eLife 11:e67576.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67576

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67576

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    Kaili Du, Hongyu Chen ... Dan Li
    Research Article

    Niemann–Pick disease type C (NPC) is a devastating lysosomal storage disease characterized by abnormal cholesterol accumulation in lysosomes. Currently, there is no treatment for NPC. Transcription factor EB (TFEB), a member of the microphthalmia transcription factors (MiTF), has emerged as a master regulator of lysosomal function and promoted the clearance of substrates stored in cells. However, it is not known whether TFEB plays a role in cholesterol clearance in NPC disease. Here, we show that transgenic overexpression of TFEB, but not TFE3 (another member of MiTF family) facilitates cholesterol clearance in various NPC1 cell models. Pharmacological activation of TFEB by sulforaphane (SFN), a previously identified natural small-molecule TFEB agonist by us, can dramatically ameliorate cholesterol accumulation in human and mouse NPC1 cell models. In NPC1 cells, SFN induces TFEB nuclear translocation via a ROS-Ca2+-calcineurin-dependent but MTOR-independent pathway and upregulates the expression of TFEB-downstream genes, promoting lysosomal exocytosis and biogenesis. While genetic inhibition of TFEB abolishes the cholesterol clearance and exocytosis effect by SFN. In the NPC1 mouse model, SFN dephosphorylates/activates TFEB in the brain and exhibits potent efficacy of rescuing the loss of Purkinje cells and body weight. Hence, pharmacological upregulating lysosome machinery via targeting TFEB represents a promising approach to treat NPC and related lysosomal storage diseases, and provides the possibility of TFEB agonists, that is, SFN as potential NPC therapeutic candidates.

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Developmental Biology
    Sarah Y Coomson, Salil A Lachke
    Insight

    A study in mice reveals key interactions between proteins involved in fibroblast growth factor signaling and how they contribute to distinct stages of eye lens development.