Open Access

ARTICLE

Vitamin B3 inhibits apoptosis and promotes autophagy of islet β cells under high glucose stress

by YU ZHANG^1,2, XI’AN ZHOU^1,2, CHUNYAN ZHANG^1,2, DENGNI LAI⁵, DONGBO LIU^1,3,4, YANYANG WU^1,2,3,4,*

1 Key Laboratory for Food Science and Biotechnology of Hunan Province, College of Food Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China
2 Horticulture and Landscape College, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China
3 Hunan Co-Innovation Center for Utilization of Botanical Functional Ingredients, Changsha, 410128, China
4 State Key Laboratory of Subhealth Intervention Technology, Changsha, 410128, China
5 Hunan Agricultural Products Processing Institute, Hunan Food Test and Analysis Center, Changsha, 410004, China

* Corresponding Author: YANYANG WU. Email:

BIOCELL 2023, 47(4), 859-868. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2023.026429

Received 07 September 2022; Accepted 11 November 2022; Issue published 08 March 2023

Abstract

Background: Hyperglycemia is a typical symptom of diabetes. High glucose induces apoptosis of islet β cells. While autophagy functions in cytoprotection and autophagic cell death. The interaction between autophagy and apoptosis is important in the modulation of the function of islet β cells. Vitamin B3 can induce autophagy and inhibit islet β apoptosis.Method: The mechanism of vitamin B3-mediated protective effect on the function of islet β cells was explored by the method of western blot, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry.Results: In the present study, high glucose stress increased the apoptosis rate, while vitamin B3 reduced the apoptosis rate. The effect of vitamin B3 on autophagy flux under normal and high glucose stress was also investigated. Vitamin B3 increased the number of autophagosomes and increased the light chain (LC)3-II/LC3-I ratio. In contrast, vitamin B3 decreased sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1)/p62 protein expression and inhibited the phosphorylation of mammalian ribosomal protein S6 kinase β-1 (p70S6K/S6K1), which was a substrate of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) under normal and high glucose stress. To further verify the protective effect of vitamin B3 on apoptosis, we treated islet β cell RIN-m5F with autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA). Vitamin B3 decreased the apoptosis rate under high glucose stress, while the inhibition of apoptosis by vitamin B3 was blocked after adding 3-MA.Conclusion: Our data suggested that vitamin B3 reduced the apoptosis rate of β cells, possibly through inducing autophagy under high glucose stress.

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