Guards and culprits in the endoplasmic reticulum: glucolipotoxicity and β-cell failure in type II diabetes

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a cellular organelle responsible for multiple important cellular functions including the biosynthesis and folding of newly synthesized proteins destined for secretion, such as insulin. The ER participates in all branches of metabolism, linking nutrient sensing to cellular signaling. Many pathological and physiological factors perturb ER function and induce ER stress. ER stress triggers an adaptive signaling cascade, called the unfolded protein response (UPR), to relieve the stress. The failure of the UPR to resolve ER stress leads to pathological conditions such as β-cell dysfunction and death, and type II diabetes. However, much less is known about the fine details of the control and regulation of the ER response to hyperglycemia (glucotoxicity), hyperlipidemia (lipotoxicity), and the combination of both (glucolipotoxicity). This paper considers recent insights into how the response is regulated, which may provide clues into the mechanism of ER stress-mediated β-cell dysfunction and death during the progression of glucolipotoxicity-induced type II diabetes.