Gene Expression Analysis of GluT2 and Glucokinase in Pancreatic Islets and Whole Pancreas Tissue

Inroduction &

Pancreatic Islets are endocrine part of the pancreas responsible for several hormone secretions, which regulates blood glucose and involves in metabolism of energy. Islet β cell responsible for secretion of insulin in response to glucose changes. The first step of this process includes glucose entry into the cell using GluT2 transporter followed by glucose phosphorylation by glucokinase as an intra cellular glucose sensor. Therefore, the aim of this study was the analysis of GluT2 and glucokinase gene expression in pancreatic islets in comparison with whole pancreas tissue.

This study was performed on a pancreatic tissue received from a brain death person. Islets were purified from a total pancreas. To investigate the successful isolation of the islets, the gene expression of Ptf1a, as a marker of the exocrine part of the pancreas, was investigated.Then, gene expression of GluT2 and glucokinase was investigated in both islets and total pancreatic tissue.

The lack of expression of the Ptf1a in the pancreatic islets indicates successful separation and high purity of isolated islets. Moreover, GluT2 and glucokinase genes were highly expressed in pancreatic islets. Furthermore, statistical analysis revealed that gene expression of GluT2 and glucokinase was significantly higher in pancreatic islets than in complete tissue.

The results indicate the high expression and importance of GluT2 and glucokinase genes in the endocrine part of the pancreas as a glucose transporter and sensor, respectively in the process of glucose-stimulated insulin-secretion. In addition, the method used in this study is very efficient for purification of islets from pancreatic tissue.