The effect of extreme hyperglycemia on the expression program of the human beta cell line EndoC-betaH2

Our in vivo Insulin-rtTA;TET-DTA mouse model of severe hyperglycemia revealed that proloned exposure to very high glucose levels inhibits cell cycle entry and progression of pancreatic beta cells. To investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for this observation and the relevance to human beta cells, we performed an in vitro experiment on EndoC-betaH2 mimiking the in vivo conditions and subjected them to RNAseq analysis. We incubated EndoC-betaH2 human beta cell line for 3 days in 5.5mM (basal glucose level), 20mM (360mg/dl) or 35mM (630mg/dl) glucose, simulating normoglycemic, hyperglycemic and extreme hyperglycemic conditions respectively and subjected the cells to RNAseq analysis.