Abstract
Recent epidemiological studies suggest that alcohol consumption is one of the risk factors leading to type 2 diabetes, but the direct effect of ethanol on β-cell gene expression is not known. Here, using cDNA RDA method, we isolated 43 ethanol-induced genes in pancreatic β-cells, and confirmed their differential expression by Northern blot or semi-quantitative RT-PCR. These genes were further categorized by the functional criteria based on the published data; Translation, Transcription, Metabolism, Signal transduction, Transport, Structure, Cytoskeleton, Regulation, or Putative/Unknown genes. The effects of each gene on β-cell function need to be further investigated, however, the present data strongly suggest that these genes might be related to the metabolic alterations caused by ethanol as indicated in earlier study. In particular, RPS3 gene expression was increased by ethanol, glucosamine, and cytokines, implying that ethanol might decrease the metabolic activity by oxidative stress in β-cells. Therefore, cloning of these genes in full-length and the detailed studies of each gene on β-cell functions might provide clues on the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes caused by alcohol.
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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Shin, JS., Kwon, YS., Lee, JJ. et al. Isolation of ethanol-induced genes in pancreatic β-cells by representational difference analysis (RDA). Exp Mol Med 36, 36–42 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/emm.2004.5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/emm.2004.5