Department of Medicine, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas's School of Medicine, King's College London, UK.
IA-2 and phogrin are tyrosine phosphatase-like proteins that may mediate interactions between secretory granules and cytoskeleton in islets and neuroendocrine tissues. We investigated factors that regulate IA-2 and phogrin expression and their relationship to maturation of insulin secretory responses that occur after birth. Islet content of IA-2, but not phogrin, increased during the first 10 days of life in rats, when insulin secretion in response to glucose increased to adult levels. In cultured 5-day-old rat islets, IA-2 protein and mRNA was increased by glucose and agents that potentiate insulin secretion by the cAMP pathway. Addition of insulin increased IA-2 protein levels and insulin biosynthesis without affecting IA-2 mRNA. Blocking insulin secretion with diazoxide or insulin action with insulin receptor antibodies inhibited glucose-induced increases in IA-2 protein, but not those of mRNA. Phogrin expression was unchanged by all agents. Thus, IA-2 is regulated at the mRNA level by glucose and elevated cAMP, whereas locally secreted insulin modulates IA-2 protein levels by stimulating biosynthesis. In contrast, phogrin expression is insensitive to factors that modify beta-cell function. These results demonstrate differential regulation of two closely related secretory granule components and identify IA-2 as a granule membrane protein subject to autocrine regulation by insulin.