Stem cell differentiation depends on transcriptional activation driven by lineage-specific regulators as well as changes in chromatin organization. However, the coordination of these events is poorly understood. Here, we show that T-box proteins team up with chromatin modifying enzymes to drive the expression of the key lineage regulator, Eomes during endodermal differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells. The Eomes locus is maintained in a transcriptionally poised configuration in ES cells. During early differentiation steps, the ES cell factor Tbx3 associates with the histone demethylase Jmjd3 at the enhancer element of the Eomes locus to allow enhancer-promoter interactions. This spatial reorganization of the chromatin primes the cells to respond to Activin signalling, which promotes the binding of Jmjd3 and Eomes to its own bivalent promoter region to further stimulate Eomes expression in a positive feedback loop. In addition, Eomes activates a transcriptional network of core regulators of endodermal differentiation. Our results demonstrate that Jmjd3 sequentially associates with two T-box factors, Tbx3 and Eomes to drive stem cell differentiation towards the definitive endoderm lineage.

In the developing pancreas, self-renewal of progenitors and patterning of cell fates are coordinated to ensure the correct size and cellular makeup of the organ. How this coordination is achieved, however, is not clear. We report that deletion of DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1) in pancreatic progenitors results in agenesis of the pancreas due to apoptosis of progenitor cells. We show that DNMT1 is bound to the p53 regulatory region and that loss of Dnmt1 results in derepression of the p53 locus. Haploinsufficiency of p53 rescues progenitor cell survival and cellular makeup of the Dnmt1-deleted pancreas.

OBJECTIVEA major determinant of the progression from insulin resistance to the development of overt type 2 diabetes is a failure to mount an appropriate compensatory β-cell hyperplastic response to maintain normoglycemia. We undertook the present study to directly explore the significance of the cell cycle protein cyclin D2 in the expansion of β-cell mass in two different models of insulin resistance.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSWe created compound knockouts by crossing mice deficient in cyclin D2 (D2KO) with either the insulin receptor substrate 1 knockout (IRS1KO) mice or the insulin receptor liver-specific knockout mice (LIRKO), neither of which develops overt diabetes on its own because of robust compensatory β-cell hyperplasia. We phenotyped the double knockouts and used RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry to examine β-cell mass.RESULTSBoth compound knockouts, D2KO/LIRKO and D2KO/IRS1KO, exhibited insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia and an absence of compensatory β-cell hyperplasia. However, the diabetic D2KO/LIRKO group rapidly succumbed early compared with a relatively normal lifespan in the glucose-intolerant D2KO/IRS1KO mice.CONCLUSIONSThis study provides direct genetic evidence that cyclin D2 is essential for the expansion of β-cell mass in response to a spectrum of insulin resistance and points to the cell-cycle protein as a potential therapeutic target that can be harnessed for preventing and curing type 2 diabetes.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression programs in the pancreas; however, little is known about the role of miRNA pathways during endocrine cell specification and maturation during neonatal life. In this study, we deleted Dicer1, an essential RNase for active miRNAs biogenesis, specifically from NGN3+ endocrine progenitor cells. We found that deletion of Dicer1 in endocrine progenitors did not affect the specification of hormone-expressing endocrine cells. However, the islets in the mutant mice in the neonatal period exhibited morphological defects in organization and loss of hormone expression, and the mutant mice subsequently developed diabetes. Dicer1-deficient β-cells lost insulin expression while maintaining the expression of β-cell transcription factors such as Pdx1 and Nkx6.1 early in the postnatal period. Surprisingly, transcriptional profiling showed that that the Dicer1-deficient endocrine cells expressed neuronal genes before the onset of diabetes. The derepression of neuronal genes was associated with a loss in binding of the neuronal transcriptional repressor RE-1-silencing transcription factor to its targets in Dicer1-deficient β-cells. These studies suggest that miRNAs play a critical role in suppressing neuronal genes during the maturation of endocrine cells.