Characterisation of the functional and transcriptomic effects of pro-inflammatory cytokines on human EndoC-βH5 beta cells

EndoC-βH5 is a newly established human beta-cell model which may be superior to previous models of native human beta cells. Exposure of beta cells to proinflammatory cytokines is a widely used in vitro model of immune-mediated beta-cell failure in type 1 diabetes and we therefore performed an in-depth characterisation of the effects of cytokines on EndoC-βH5 cells. Global gene expression was characterised by stranded RNA sequencing. Human EndoC-βH5 cells were left untreated or exposed to proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β+IFN-γ+TNFα) for 48 h (n=4, in each condition).