Cyclin D3 and CDK11 partnership in pancreatic beta cell homeostasis in autoimmune diabetes. Studies on the NOD mouse model

  1. Sengupta, Upasana
Supervised by:
  1. Concepción Mora Giral Director

Defence university: Universitat de Lleida

Fecha de defensa: 20 January 2014

Committee:
  1. Neus Agell Jané Chair
  2. Joaquím Egea Navarro Secretary
  3. Marta Vives Pi Committee member

Type: Thesis

Teseo: 356536 DIALNET lock_openTDX editor

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Cyclin D3 and CDK11 are downregulated in pancreatic islet endocrine cells during the autoimmune attack progression in autoimmune-prone NOD (Non-obese diabetic) mouse strain. D-type cyclins are crucial in order to connect mitogenic signals with the Rb/E2F pathway, which regulates transcription of factors involved in further cell cycle progression. CDK11, protein-kinase PITSLRE, exhibits two gene products: p58 and p110 (p130 in mouse) in humans. CDK11p110 regulates transcription and RNA splicing. CDK11p110 is expressed in all cell cycle phases, while CDK11p58 is only expressed during mitosis (G2/M) and is essential in apoptosis. The interaction between CDK11p58 and cyclin D3 has been reported and it represses certain nuclear receptors action. This observation may suggest that in pancreatic beta cells simultaneous downregulation of cyclin D3 and CDK11 may obey to a coordinated regulation of both molecules. In this thesis we have studied whether there is a causal relationship between coordinated cyclin D3 and CDK11 downregulation and type 1 diabetes in vivo and in vitro.The outcome of our research will allow us to establish whether cyclin D3 and CDK11 are molecular targets in type1 diabetes.