Diabetes & Metabolism Journal

Original Article

Basic and Translational Research
High-Fat Diet-Fed Kcnq1 Mutant Mice Have Reduced Pancreatic β-Cell Mass via Gene-Environment Interaction: Shun-ichiro Asahara, Hiroyuki Inoue, Yuka Ihara, Kyoko Teruyama, Asuka Imai, Chisako Hara, Mizuki Hara, Masako Seike, Aisha Yokoi, Nozomi Kido, Hirotaka Suzuki, Ayumi Kanno, Yuka Inaba, Hitoshi Watanabe, Go Shioi, Maki Kimura-Koyanagi, Michihiro Matsumoto, Hiroshi Inoue, Keiichi I. Nakayama, Wataru Ogawa, Masato Kasuga, Yoshiaki Kido; Diabetes Metab J. 2026;50(1):77-89. Published online July 30, 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4093/dmj.2024.0790

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Background
The potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily Q member 1 (KCNQ1) gene has recently received much attention as a candidate susceptibility gene for type 2 diabetes mellitus, especially in Asian populations. We previously reported that Kcnq1 mutant mice exhibit reduced insulin secretion and hyperglycemia due to a decrease in pancreatic β-cell mass. Through in vivo and in vitro analyses, we ascertained that this mechanism is the result of the downregulation of the non-coding RNA ‘Kcnq1ot1,’ which is expressed in the paternal allele of the Kcnq1 gene region, causing an increase in the expression of the cell cycle inhibitor cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 1C (Cdkn1c). It was found that decreased Kcnq1ot1 expression resulted in pancreatic β-cell failure; however, the degree of pancreatic β-cell volume reduction was not severe.
Methods
We induced obesity in Kcnq1ot1 truncation mice by feeding them a high-fat diet and evaluated pancreatic β-cell mass.
Results
In the present study, we reveal that CCAAT/enhancer binding protein beta (C/EBPβ), which is expressed at higher levels in pancreatic β-cells in obese individuals, further increases the expression of Cdkn1c, which is upregulated by the Kcnq1 gene mutation. We found that simultaneous Cdkn1c hypomethylation and C/EBPβ overexpression in pancreatic β-cells causes a synergistic decrease in pancreatic β-cell mass.
Conclusion
This finding suggests that the synergistic effect of genetic factors such as Kcnq1 gene mutations and environmental factors such as obesity and overeating, which lead to increased expression of C/EBPβ, contribute to the regulation of pancreatic β-cell mass. This study is the first to show that the Kcnq1 gene is related to pancreatic β-cell mass through genetic-environment interactions.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Long noncoding RNAs in insulin signaling: mechanisms, metabolic roles, and therapeutic prospects
Soham Bhattacharyya, Debopriya Choudhury, Brahmachari Vedeshachaitanya, Pushkar Malakar
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice.2026; 237: 113320. CrossRef

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