Expression data of rat insulinoma cells induced with ER stress +/- IRE1 inhibitor treatment

The Akita mutation (C96Y) in the insulin gene results in early onset diabetes in both humans and mice. Expression of the mutant proinsulin (C96Y) causes endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in pancreatic -cells and consequently the cell activates the unfolded protein response (UPR). Since the proinsulin is terminally misfolded however, the ER stress is irremediable and chronic activation of the UPR eventually activates apoptosis in the cell population. We used microarray gene expression arrays to analyze the IRE1-dependent activation of genes in response to misfolded proinsulin expression in an inducible mutant proinsulin (C96Y) insulinoma cell line by inhibiting the IRE1 endoribonucleas activity with a specific inhibitor, 4u8c. Insulinoma cells with doxycycline inducible C96Y-proinsulin expression were either untreated, treated with doxycycline alone or treated with dox and 4u8c. This was done with two biological replicates.