Distinct roles of HNF1beta, HNF1alpha, and HNF4alpha in regulating pancreas development, beta-cell function and growth.

Mutations in the genes encoding transcriptional regulators HNF1beta (TCF2), HNF1alpha (TCF1), and HNF4alpha cause autosomal dominant diabetes (also known as maturity-onset diabetes of the young). Herein, we review what we have learnt during recent years concerning the functions of these regulators in the developing and adult pancreas. Mouse studies have revealed that HNF1beta is a critical regulator of a transcriptional network that controls the specification, growth, and differentiation of the embryonic pancreas. HNF1beta mutations in humans accordingly often cause pancreas hypoplasia. By contrast, HNF1alpha and HNF4alpha have been shown to regulate the function of differentiated beta-cells. HNF1alpha and HNF4alpha mutations in patients thus cause decreased glucose-induced insulin secretion that leads to a progressive form of diabetes. HNF4alpha mutations paradoxically also cause in utero and neonatal hyperinsulinism, which later evolves to decreased glucose-induced secretion. Recent studies show that Hnf4alpha deficiency in mice causes not only abnormal insulin secretion, but also an impairment of the expansion of beta-cell mass that normally occurs during pregnancy. In line with this finding, we present data that Hnf1alpha-/- beta-cells expressing SV40 large T antigen show a severe impairment of proliferation and failure to form tumours. Collectively, these findings implicate HNF1beta as a regulator of pancreas organogenesis and differentiation, whereas HNF1alpha and HNF4alpha primarily regulate both growth and function of islet beta-cells.

Pancreatic exocrine duct cells give rise to insulin-producing beta cells during embryogenesis but not after birth.

A longstanding unsettled question is whether pancreatic beta cells originate from exocrine duct cells. We have now used genetic labeling to fate map embryonic and adult pancreatic duct cells. We show that Hnf1beta+ cells of the trunk compartment of the early branching pancreas are precursors of acinar, duct, and endocrine lineages. Hnf1beta+ cells subsequent form the embryonic duct epithelium, which gives rise to both ductal and endocrine lineages, but not to acinar cells. By the end of gestation, the fate of Hnf1beta+ duct cells is further restrained. We provide compelling evidence that the ductal epithelium does not make a significant contribution to acinar or endocrine cells during neonatal growth, during a 6 month observation period, or during beta cell growth triggered by ligation of the pancreatic duct or by cell-specific ablation with alloxan followed by EGF/gastrin treatment. Thus, once the ductal epithelium differentiates it has a restricted plasticity, even under regenerative settings.

Hnf1alpha (MODY3) controls tissue-specific transcriptional programs and exerts opposed effects on cell growth in pancreatic islets and liver.

Heterozygous HNF1A mutations cause pancreatic-islet beta-cell dysfunction and monogenic diabetes (MODY3). Hnf1alpha is known to regulate numerous hepatic genes, yet knowledge of its function in pancreatic islets is more limited. We now show that Hnf1a deficiency in mice leads to highly tissue-specific changes in the expression of genes involved in key functions of both islets and liver. To gain insights into the mechanisms of tissue-specific Hnf1alpha regulation, we integrated expression studies of Hnf1a-deficient mice with identification of direct Hnf1alpha targets. We demonstrate that Hnf1alpha can bind in a tissue-selective manner to genes that are expressed only in liver or islets. We also show that Hnf1alpha is essential only for the transcription of a minor fraction of its direct-target genes. Even among genes that were expressed in both liver and islets, the subset of targets showing functional dependence on Hnf1alpha was highly tissue specific. This was partly explained by the compensatory occupancy by the paralog Hnf1beta at selected genes in Hnf1a-deficient liver. In keeping with these findings, the biological consequences of Hnf1a deficiency were markedly different in islets and liver. Notably, Hnf1a deficiency led to impaired large-T-antigen-induced growth and oncogenesis in beta cells yet enhanced proliferation in hepatocytes. Collectively, these findings show that Hnf1alpha governs broad, highly tissue-specific genetic programs in pancreatic islets and liver and reveal key consequences of Hnf1a deficiency relevant to the pathophysiology of monogenic diabetes.

Differential role of the proline-rich domain of nuclear factor 1-C splice variants in DNA binding and transactivation.

We have addressed the functional significance of the existence of several natural splice variants of NF1-C* differing in their COOH-terminal proline-rich transactivation domain (PRD) by studying their specific DNA binding and transactivation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These parameters yielded the intrinsic transactivation potential (ITP), defined as the activation observed with equal amounts of DNA bound protein. Exchange of 83 amino acids at the COOH-terminal end of the PRD by 16 unrelated amino acids, as found in NF1-C2, and splicing out the central region of the PRD, as found in NF1-C7, enhanced DNA binding in vivo and in vitro. However, the ITP of the splice variants NF1-C2 and NF1-C7 was found to be similar to that of the intact NF1-C1. Additional mutations showed that the ITP of NF1-C requires the synergistic action of the PRD and a novel domain encoded in exons 5 and 6. Intriguingly the carboxyl-terminal domain-like motif encoded in exons 9/10 is not essential for transactivation of a reporter with a single NF1 site but is required for activation of a reporter with six NF1 sites in tandem. Our results imply that differential splicing is used to regulate transcription by generating variants with different DNA binding affinities but similar ITPs.