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Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Studying the Hypothalamic Insulin Signal to Peripheral Glucose Intolerance with a Continuous Drug Infusion System into the Mouse Brain
Published on: January 4, 2018
Regulation of brain insulin mRNA by glucose and glucagon-like peptide 1
Golnaz Madadi1, Prasad S Dalvi, Denise D Belsham
1Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Medical Science Building 3247 A, King's College Circle, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 1A8.
Abstract:
Whether the brain synthesizes insulin is currently debated. Two clonal, immortalized mouse hypothalamic cell lines from e17, mHypoE-39 and mHypoE-46, express insulin 2 (Ins2), but not Ins1. We analyzed regions necessary for basal gene activity and found that the mouse Ins2 region -110/+183 bp stimulates promoter activity in hypothalamic neurons. The rat Ins2 showed moderate activity, whereas the human promoter construct is repressed below basal levels. In MIN6 pancreatic beta-cells, all of the Ins1 and Ins2 promoter constructs display high levels of transcriptional activity. The cell lines also express components of glucose-sensing machinery and the endogenous glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (Glp-1R). We observed that 16.7 mM glucose induces Ins2 mRNA, while forskolin and a Glp-1 agonist, exendin-4, induce a biphasic Ins2 mRNA response in mHypoE-39 neurons. The insulin cis-regulatory regions differ between the pancreas and the hypothalamus, and glucose and Glp-1 regulate the expression of hypothalamic insulin.
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