mRNA Profiling of Rat Islet Tumors Reveals Nkx 6.1 as a β-Cell-specific Homeodomain Transcription Factor

Development of a high capacity multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction protocol has allowed us to screen lineage related rat islet tumors classified as α-, β-, and δ-like as judged by their hormone profile for differential expression of more than 50 selected genes. We find that in addition to insulin the insulinoma express the normal β-cell markers Pdx-1, IAPP, and Glut-2, and that these markers are absent from the glucagonoma: a reflection of the normal α-cell. Furthermore, this study suggests that the GLP-1, glucagon, GIP, IGF-1, and insulin receptors as well as E-cadherin, R-cadherin, Id-1, and Id-2 are differentially expressed within the islet of Langerhans. Importantly, insulinoma-specific expression of the recently cloned homeodomain protein Nkx 6.1 predicted β-cell-specific expression in the normal islet. Immunohistochemistry using antibodies raised against recombinant Nkx 6.1 did indeed localize Nkx 6.1 expression exclusively to the nuclei of normal islet β-cells. Apart from pancreatic islets only the antral part of the stomach contained Nkx 6.1 mRNA. We conclude that multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction-based mRNA profiling is a powerful tool to identify differentially expressed genes within phenotypically related cells and propose that Nkx 6.1 is involved in specifying the unique characteristics of the β-cell.