Endocrine Abstracts

Proinsulin makes three evolutionarily-conserved disulfide bonds, two of which connect the insulin B and A chains, and one intrachain bond within the A chain. In Type II diabetes mellitus, increasing evidence suggests that insulin-secreting pancreatic β cells show signs of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and an increase in the presence of proinsulin with mispaired disulfide bonds. In addition, heterozygous expression of misfolded mutant proinsulin is known to cause autos...