Bioenergetic Analysis of Single Pancreatic β-Cells Indicates an Impaired Metabolic Signature in Type 2 Diabetic Subjects

Abstract

Impaired activation of mitochondrial energy metabolism by glucose has been demonstrated in type 2 diabetic β-cells. The cause of this dysfunction is unknown. The aim of this study was to identify segments of energy metabolism with normal or with altered function in human type 2 diabetes mellitus. The mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔψM), and its response to glucose, is the main driver of mitochondrial ATP synthesis and is hence a central mediator of glucose-induced insulin secretion, but its quantitative determination in β-cells from human donors has not been attempted, due to limitations in assay technology. Here, novel fluorescence microscopic assays are exploited to quantify ΔψM and its response to glucose and other secretagogues in β-cells of dispersed pancreatic islet cells from 4 normal and 3 type 2 diabetic organ donors. Mitochondrial volume densities and the magnitude of ΔψM in low glucose were not consistently altered in diabetic β-cells. However, ΔψM was consistently less responsive to elevation of glucose concentration, whereas the decreased response was not observed with metabolizable secretagogue mixtures that feed directly into the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Single-cell analysis of the heterogeneous responses to metabolizable secretagogues indicated no dysfunction in relaying ΔψM hyperpolarization to plasma membrane potential depolarization in diabetic β-cells. ΔψM of diabetic β-cells was distinctly responsive to acute inhibition of ATP synthesis during glucose stimulation. It is concluded that the mechanistic deficit in glucose-induced insulin secretion and mitochondrial hyperpolarization of diabetic human β-cells is located upstream of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and manifests in dampening the control of ΔψM by glucose metabolism.