Pancreatic β-cells are prone to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress due to their role in insulin secretion. They require sustainable and efficient adaptive stress responses to cope with this stress. Whether episodes of chronic stress directly compromise β-cell identity is unknown. We show here under reversible, chronic stress conditions β-cells undergo transcriptional and translational reprogramming associated with impaired expression of regulators of β-cell function and identity. Upon recovery from stress, β-cells regain their identity and function, indicating a high degree of adaptive plasticity. Remarkably, while β-cells show resilience to episodic ER stress, when episodes exceed a threshold, β-cell identity is gradually lost. Single cell RNA-sequencing analysis of islets from type 1 diabetes patients indicates severe deregulation of the chronic stress-adaptation program and reveals novel biomarkers of diabetes progression. Our results suggest β-cell adaptive exhaustion contributes to diabetes pathogenesis.

In There are few Arabic studies examining the disposition of mindfulness, resilience, and well-being of college students. The purpose of the present study is to examine the factor structure and internal consistency of the Arabic version of mindful attention awareness scale (MAAS) and the brief resilience scale, and to test a model that describes the role of resilience and well-being, in relation to mindfulness and life satisfaction. For this reason, a study of two folds was conducted with the assistance of Umm Al-Quraa University students (n = 562; n = 534). Mindfulness, resilience, flourishing and life satisfaction scales are the variables that were used. Results show that both mindfulness and resilience scales were revealed to be unidimensional and have high reliability estimates. Both resilience and flourishing are partial mediators in the relationship between mindful and life satisfaction. In addition, resilience had an impact on flourishing. Mindfulness partially had an effect on life satisfaction. In conclusion, mindfulness and resilience scales had good structural validity and reliability.

Pancreatic β-cells undergo high levels of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress due to their role in insulin secretion. Hence, they require sustainable and efficient adaptive stress responses to cope with the stress. Whether duration and episodes of chronic ER stress directly compromises β-cell identity is largely unknown. We show that under reversible, chronic ER stress, β-cells undergo a distinct transcriptional and translational reprogramming. During reprogramming, expression of master regulators of β-cell function and identity and proinsulin processing is impaired. Upon recovery from stress, β-cells regain their identity, highlighting a high-degree of adaptive β-cell plasticity. Remarkably, when stress episodes exceed a certain threshold, β-cell identity is gradually lost. Single cell RNA-seq analysis of islets from type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients, identifies the severe deregulation of the chronic stress-adaptation program, and reveals novel biomarkers for progression of T1D. Our results suggest β-cell adaptive exhaustion (βEAR) is a significant component of the pathogenesis of T1D.

Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress, caused by the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER, elicits a homeostatic mechanism known as the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). The UPR reprograms gene expression to promote adaptation to chronic ER stress. The UPR comprises an acute phase involving inhibition of bulk protein synthesis and a chronic phase of transcriptional induction coupled with the partial recovery of protein synthesis. However, the role of transcriptional regulation in the acute phase of the UPR is not well understood. Here we analyzed the fate of newly synthesized mRNA encoding the protective and homeostatic transcription factor X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1) during this acute phase. We have previously shown that global translational repression induced by the acute UPR was characterized by decreased translation and increased stability of XBP1 mRNA. We demonstrate here that this stabilization is independent of new transcription. In contrast, we show XBP1 mRNA newly synthesized during the acute phase accumulates with long poly(A) tails and escapes translational repression. Inhibition of newly synthesized RNA polyadenylation during the acute phase decreased cell survival with no effect in unstressed cells. Furthermore, during the chronic phase of the UPR, levels of XBP1 mRNA with long poly(A) tails decreased in a manner consistent with co-translational deadenylation. Finally, additional pro-survival, transcriptionally-induced mRNAs show similar regulation, supporting the broad significance of the pre-steady state UPR in translational control during ER stress. We conclude that the biphasic regulation of poly(A) tail length during the UPR represents a previously unrecognized pro-survival mechanism of mammalian gene regulation.

Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress, caused by the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER, elicits a homeostatic mechanism known as the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). The UPR reprograms gene expression to promote adaptation to chronic ER stress. The UPR comprises an acute phase involving inhibition of bulk protein synthesis and a chronic phase of transcriptional induction coupled with the partial recovery of protein synthesis. However, the role of transcriptional regulation in the acute phase of the UPR is not well understood. Here we analyzed the fate of newly synthesized mRNA encoding the protective and homeostatic transcription factor X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1) during this acute phase. We have previously shown that global translational repression induced by the acute UPR was characterized by decreased translation and increased stability of XBP1 mRNA. We demonstrate here that this stabilization is independent of new transcription. In contrast, we show XBP1 mRNA newly synthesized during the acute phase accumulates with long poly(A) tails and escapes translational repression. Inhibition of nascent RNA polyadenylation during the acute phase decreased cell survival with no effect in unstressed cells. Furthermore, during the chronic phase of the UPR, levels of XBP1 mRNA with long poly(A) tails decreased in a manner consistent with co-translational deadenylation. Finally, additional pro-survival, transcriptionally-induced mRNAs show similar regulation, supporting the broad significance of the pre-steady state UPR in translational control during ER stress. We conclude that the biphasic regulation of poly(A) tail length during the UPR represents a previously unrecognized pro-survival mechanism of mammalian gene regulation.