Cell line and cell treatment
INS-1 cells were obtained from the National Infrastructure of Cell Line Resource (Beijing, China) and cultured in RPMI-1640 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) added with L-glutamine, FBS (10%; Invitrogen), HEPES (10 mmol/L; Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA), sodium pyruvate (1 mmol/L; Invitrogen), and β-mercaptoethanol (50 μmol/L; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MI, USA) at 37℃ in 5% CO2.
For high-fat induction, cholesterol (Santa Cruz Biotechnology; Dallas, TX, USA) was dissolved in chloroform and diluted to 2.5, 5 and 10 mM/L with culture medium for 24h; For GLP-1 treatment, cells were treated with GLP-1 agonist 5nM/L exendin-4 (Ex-4) for 24h; For AMPK activation or inhibition, cells were pre-treated with 0.5 mmol/L Acadesine (AICAR) or 10 μM/L compound c for 4 h and then co-treated with Ex-4 for 24 h, respectively.
Cell transfection
PARP-1 knockdown was generated in target cells by the transfection of si-PARP-1 synthesized by GenePharma (Shanghai, China). PARP-1 overexpression was generated in target cells by the transfection of PARP-1-pcDNA3.1 overexpression vector by (GenePharma). The transfection into target cells was performed with the help of lipofectamine 3000 (Invitrogen). Twenty-four hours later, the transfected cells were harvested for different experiments.
Cell viability evaluation
The cell viability was examined using 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) according to the methods described before [27]. MTT is taken up by cells through the plasma membrane potential and then reduced to formazan by intracellular NAD(P)H-oxidoreductases and the formazan was dissolved by DMSO after the supernatant was discarded. OD values were measured at 490 nm and the viability was calculated taking the non-treated cell (control) viability as 100%.
Cell apoptosis evaluation
Cell apoptosis was determined by Flow cytometry. The cells were digested by trypsin and collected. After resuspended in 100 μl binding buffer, the cells were added with 5 μl Annexin V-FITC and 5 μl Propidium Iodide (PI) at room temperature avoid of light for 15 min. Then, the cells were tested on flow cytometry.
Immunoblotting
The total protein was extracted, resolved on 10% SDS-PAGE, and transferred onto polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes. Non-specific bindings were blocked by an incubation with 5% nonfat dry milk in Tris buffered saline Tween (TBST) for 2 h followed by an incubation with the appropriate primary antibodies at 4°C overnight and another incubation with the appropriate secondary antibodies for 2 h at room temperature. The primary antibodies used are as follows: anti-ABCA1 (ab18180; Abcam, Cambridge, UK), anti-PARP-1 (13371-1-AP; Proteintech, Wuhan, China), anti-p-PARP-1 (MBS9206900; MyBioSource, San Diego, CA, USA), anti-LXRβ (ab28479; Abcam), anti-AMPK (10929-2-AP; Proteintech), anti-p-AMPK (ab133448; Abcam). The immunoreactive proteins were visualized and examined using an enhanced chemiluminescence reagent (ECL; BeyoECL Star Kit, Beyotime, Shanghai, China).
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based analyses
Total RNA was extracted, processed, and examined for the expression of target genes according to a method described previously [28]. The expression levels of target genes were detected by SYBR green PCR Master Mix (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) taking GAPDH as an endogenous control. The data were processed using a 2-ΔΔCT method.
Measurements of cellular cholesterol
The cellular contents of cholesterol in INS-1 cells were measured using cholesterol assay kits (ab133116; Abcam) according to the manufacturers’ protocol.
Determination of adipogenic induction
After treatment and/or transfection, to identify the lip droplets in cells, INS-1 cells were fixed in paraformaldehyde (4%), stained with oil red O (0.5%; Santa Cruz, Dallas, TX, USA), and observed for images under an inverted light microscope. For Bodipy staining, fixed cells were stained with Bodipy solution (1 μg/ml) and observed for images under fluorescence microscope.
Cholesterol efflux from INS-1 cells
The BODIPY-cholesterol assay was performed to monitor the cholesterol efflux from INS-1 cells following the methods described previously [29]. Cells were planted in black 96-well plates at a density of 2×104 cells/well and cultured for 24 h. Then, cells were treated with cholesterol (without cholesterol as the control group) for 1 h and replaced with serum-free medium for 24 h followed by another incubation with EX-4 for 1 h. Next, cells were cultured in serum-free medium containing labeling media, which is consisted of BODIPY cholesterol (0.025 mM) (TopFluor® Cholesterol, product No. 810255; Avanti Polar Lipids, Ablaster, AL, USA), MCD (10 mM), HEPES (Sigma), and egg phosphatidylcholine (0.1 mM) (Avanti Polar Lipids) [29] for 1 h. Cells were washed with RPMI-1640 and incubated with serum-free medium for 18 h. Then, cells were observed by After that, cells were dissolved with 1% cholic acid (Sigma) in 1N NaOH for 4 h under agitation while the supernatant was collected and then centrifuged at 10,000 ×g for 5 min. The fluorescence intensity representing the cholesterol was examined using a microplate reader at an excitation wavelength of 482 nm and an emission wavelength of 515 nm. The percentage of the cholesterol efflux was calculated as cholesterol efflux intensity/(intracellular cholesterol + cholesterol efflux) ×100%.
Co-Immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) assay
The sequence encoding LXR and PARP-1 were cloned into the pcDNA3.1/Flag or pcDNA3.1/His vector, named Flag-LXR and His-PARP-1, respectively. Then, these vectors were co-transfected into INS-1 cells. Empty vectors were co-transfected into target cells as controls. Thirty-six hours after transfection, the cells were harvested and the proteins were extracted. Flag monoclonal antibodies were used for IP testing followed by Immunoblotting using anti-Flag (ab49763; Abcam) and anti-His (ab5000; Abcam) antibodies. In order to exclude the effect of DNase and RNase, we treated the cell lysates with 5mg/ml Dnase and Rnase, respectively.
Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation Assay
To examine poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation (also known as PARylation, is a special case of ADP-ribosylation), recombinant full-length human GLP-1 (100 ng; Abcam) was incubated with recombinant human PARP-1 (40 ng; 31238; Active Motif, Carlsbad, CA, USA) with the pre-treatment of AMPK activator AICAR or AMPK inhibitor Compound C under cholesterol treatment, or recombinant full-length human LXRα (100 ng; Protein One, Rockville, MD, USA) was incubated with recombinant human PARP-1 (40 ng; 31238; Active Motif) in the reaction buffer described previously [21] for 30 min. The reaction was terminated as described and the poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation was visualized by immunoblotting with anti-PAR1 antibody [21].
Diabetes mellitus rat models and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery
Six-week-old male SD rats (n = 50) were obtained from SLAC Laboratory Animal Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) and randomly assigned into five groups: non-treatment control group, streptozotocin (STZ)-induced T2DM group, STZ-induced T2DM plus sham surgery group, STZ-induced T2DM plus RYGB surgery group, and STZ-induced T2DM plus EX-4 treatment group. T2DM was induced by the intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of 60 mg/kg STZ (Sigma) after overnight fasting. Rats in the non-treatment control group were injected with an equal volume of PBS in citrate buffer solution (pH 4.5). Before surgery, all rats were fasted overnight and then intraperitoneally anesthetized with chloral hydrate (10%, 350 mg/kg; Sigma). The RYGB surgery was performed on rats following the methods reported before [30].
Blood sample collection and examination
For animal experiments, blood was collected from rat tail veins prior to and 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks after surgery. For blood sample collection, rats in different groups were euthanized through intraperitoneal injection of sodium pentobarbital (150 mg/kg; Sigma). GLP‑1 and insulin levels in clinc samples and rat blood were determined by ELISA using GLP‑1 (cat. no. RA20061; Bio‑Swamp Life Science, Wuhan, China) and insulin (cat. no. RA20092; Bio‑Swamp Life Science) kits following the manufacturer's instructions. The levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were determined using an automatic biochemical analyzer (BS‑450; Mindray, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China).
Clinical data collection
Ten cases of T2DM patients received LSG treatment in the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South Uniersity were enrolled. The data collection was performed with the approval of the Ethics Committee of the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South Uniersity. All patients signed informed consent forms. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was measured before LSG surgery and 3 months after surgery. PG, INS, C peptide, and GLP-1 were examined before oral glucose and 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and 120 minutes after oral glucose. Disposition Index (DI) = (Ins30-Ins0)/(Glu30-Glu0)*1/HOMA-IR, Insulin Sensitivity Index (IAI) = 1/(FINSXFPG), Insulinogenic index = (Ins30-Ins0)/(Glu30-Glu0), HOMA-β = 20*FINS/(FPG-3.5). The correlation between the area under the curve (AUC) of GLP-1 and the area under the curve of blood glucose and C-peptide was analyzed,
Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining
Formalin fixed and paraffin-embedded rats’ pancreatic tissue sections were deparaffinized in xylene and rehydrated using graded ethanol into PBS. Endogenous peroxidase is blocked with 0.3% hydrogen peroxide in methanol. For histopathological evaluations, the sections were stained with H&E. For the protein content and distribution, the sections were applied for IHC staining. Sections were incubated with 5% normal rat serum followed by another incubation firstly with primary antibodies against ABCA1 and PARP-1 at 4°C overnight, secondly with a biotinylated secondary antibody, and thirdly with an avidin-biotinylated peroxidase complex (Santa Cruz Biotechnology).
Data processing and statistical analysis
The data were analyzed with GraphPad software. The measurement data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD). Among-group and intra-group data comparisons were performed with the ANOVA and Student’s t-tests. P<0.05 indicated statistically significant difference.