RNA-seq analysis of mRNA profiles in ß-Gal-overexpressing, NIK-overexpressing, and NIK(KA)-overexpressing INS-1 832/13 cells

Purpose: The goal of this study is to investigate how NIK regulates islet ß-cell function. Methods: mRNA profiles of ß-Gal-overexpressing, NIK-overexpressing, and NIK(KA)-overexpressing INS-1 832/13 cells were generated by deep sequencing using an Illumina Hiseq platform. Paired-end clean reads were aligned to the rat reference genome (ftp://ftp.ensembl.org/pub/release-90/fasta/rattus_norvegicus/dna/) with TopHat (version 2.0.12), and the aligned reads were used to quantify mRNA expression by using HTSeq-count (version 0.6.1). Conclusion: Our study represents the first detailed analysis of mRNA profiles in NIK-overexpressing and NIK(KA)-overexpressing INS-1 832/13 cells, generated by RNA-seq technology. Our results show that 471 genes were upregulated and 249 genes were downregulated following NIK overexpression. GO analysis indicated that the upregulated genes were primarily related to the immune response. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that immune signaling pathways, including the TNF, NF-?B, antigen processing and presentation signaling pathways, were significantly activated by NIK overexpression in INS-1 832/13 cells, whereas genes related to insulin secretion and regulation of secretion were significantly decreased. NIK(KA), the dominant-negative mutant of NIK, does not induce the expression of genes related to immune response in INS-1 832/13 cells. Overall design: mRNA profiles in ß-Gal-overexpressing, NIK-overexpressing, and NIK(KA)-overexpressing INS-1 832/13 cells were generated by deep sequencing, in a single test, using Illumina