There is a strong association between obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D); however, the majority of obese individuals do not develop T2D, supporting that genetic predisposition is an important component of the disease. Alan Attie and colleagues previously revealed that polymorphisms in the Sorcs1 gene are associated with diabetes in obese mice. In this episode, Alan Attie, Angie Oler, and Melkam Kebede discuss their current study, which demonstrates that SORCS1 is required to replenish insulin secretory granules. Although obese Sorcs1-defient mice developed severe T2D, insulin secretion in response to a single glucose challenge did not appear dysfunctional in these animals. However, repeated challenge of islets isolated from Sorcs1-deficient mice resulted in loss of secretory granule production and insulin content. These results suggest that some insulin secretion defects in patients may not be revealed by a single secretagogue challenge.
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Melkam A. Kebede, Angie T. Oler, Trillian Gregg, Allison J. Balloon, Adam Johnson, Kelly Mitok, Mary Rabaglia, Kathryn Schueler, Donald Stapleton, Candice Thorstenson, Lindsay Wrighton, Brendan J. Floyd, Oliver Richards, Summer Raines, Kevin Eliceiri, Nabil G. Seidah, Christopher Rhodes, Mark P. Keller, Joshua L. Coon, Anjon Audhya, Alan D. Attie