Notable Underlying Mechanism for Pancreatic β-Cell Dysfunction and Atherosclerosis: Pleiotropic Roles of Incretin and Insulin Signaling

Under healthy conditions, pancreatic β-cells produce and secrete the insulin hormone in response to blood glucose levels. Under diabetic conditions, however, β-cells are compelled to continuously secrete larger amounts of insulin to reduce blood glucose levels, and thereby, the β-cell function is debilitated in the long run. In the diabetic state, expression levels of insulin gene transcription factors and incretin receptors are downregulated, which we think is closely associated with β-cell failure. These data also suggest that it would be better to use incretin-based drugs at an early stage of diabetes when incretin receptor expression is preserved. Indeed, it was shown that incretin-based drugs exerted more protective effects on β-cells at an early stage. Furthermore, it was shown recently that endothelial cell dysfunction was also associated with pancreatic β-cell dysfunction. After ablation of insulin signaling in endothelial cells, the β-cell function and mass were substantially reduced, which was also accompanied by reduced expression of insulin gene transcription factors and incretin receptors in β-cells. On the other hand, it has been drawing much attention that incretin plays a protective role against the development of atherosclerosis. Many basic and clinical data have underscored the importance of incretin in arteries. Furthermore, it was shown recently that incretin receptor expression was downregulated in arteries under diabetic conditions, which likely diminishes the protective effects of incretin against atherosclerosis. Furthermore, a series of large-scale clinical trials (SPAED-A, SPIKE, LEADER, SUSTAIN-6, REWIND, PIONEER trials) have shown that various incretin-related drugs have beneficial effects against atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular events. These data strengthen the hypothesis that incretin plays an important role in the arteries of humans, as well as rodents.