Fig. 6.

Influence of mTOR inhibition on the glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and the expression of exocytosis-related genes in mouse pancreatic islets exposed to glucotoxicity. After a 7-days exposure to 33 mM glucose, mouse islets develop an insulin hypersecreting phenotype in response to acute stimulation with 15 mM glucose compared to control islets. Rapamycin partly prevents this effect without influencing the basal secretion at 3 mM glucose (a). The expression of exocytosis-related genes is heterogeneously upregulated by glucotoxicity (b−g) and co-culture with rapamycin further increases Vamp2 levels (b) but tends to normalize Vamp7 (c) and Snap25 (g). Circles and squares indicate the number of independent female or male mouse preparations, respectively (~ 3-months of age for GSIS; and ~ 8-months of age for RT-qPCR assays). a − g: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; a: ^#p < 0.05, ^###p < 0.01 vs. control with 3 mM glucose