“It was so surprising, we didn’t believe it ourselves,” said Kaverina, associate professor of Cell and Developmental Biology.
Together with Guoqiang Gu, Ph.D., associate professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, and other Vanderbilt laboratories, the investigators demonstrated using multiple systems and technologies that microtubules negatively regulate insulin secretion in beta cells. Importantly, Gu’s team destroyed microtubules in mice and showed that both glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and glucose clearance from the blood increased compared to mice with intact microtubules.
“In any model we tested, destroying microtubules increased insulin secretion,” Kaverina said. “How could it be that the structures that are supposed to be internal highways delivering things to the membrane actually suppress secretion?”