Transcription factors positively and/or negatively impact gene expression by recruiting coregulatory factors, which interact through protein-protein binding. Here we demonstrate that mouse pancreas size and islet β-cell function are controlled by the ATP-dependent Swi/Snf chromatin remodeling coregulatory complex that physically associates with Pdx1, a diabetes-linked transcription factor essential to pancreatic morphogenesis and adult islet cell function and maintenance. Early embryonic deletion of just the Swi/Snf Brg1 ATPase subunit reduced multipotent pancreatic progenitor cell proliferation and resulted in pancreas hypoplasia. In contrast, removal of both Swi/Snf ATPase subunits, Brg1 and Brm, was necessary to compromise adult islet β-cell activity, which included whole-animal glucose intolerance, hyperglycemia, and impaired insulin secretion. Notably, lineage-tracing analysis revealed Swi/Snf-deficient β-cells lost the ability to produce the mRNAs for Ins and other key metabolic genes without effecting the expression of many essential islet-enriched transcription factors. Swi/Snf was necessary for Pdx1 to bind to the Ins gene enhancer, demonstrating the importance of this association in mediating chromatin accessibility. These results illustrate how fundamental the Pdx1:Swi/Snf coregulator complex is in the pancreas, and we discuss how disrupting their association could influence type 1 and type 2 diabetes susceptibility.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with compromised identity of insulin-producing pancreatic islet β cells, characterized by inappropriate production of other islet cell-enriched hormones. Here, we examined how hormone misexpression was influenced by the MAFA and MAFB transcription factors, closely related proteins that maintain islet cell function. Mice specifically lacking MafA in β cells demonstrated broad, population-wide changes in hormone gene expression with an overall gene signature closely resembling islet gastrin+ (Gast+) cells generated under conditions of chronic hyperglycemia and obesity. A human β cell line deficient in MAFB, but not one lacking MAFA, also produced a GAST+ gene expression pattern. In addition, GAST was detected in human T2D β cells with low levels of MAFB. Moreover, evidence is provided that human MAFB can directly repress GAST gene transcription. These results support a potentially novel, species-specific role for MafA and MAFB in maintaining adult mouse and human β cell identity, respectively. Here, we discuss the possibility that induction of Gast/GAST and other non-β cell hormones, by reduction in the levels of these transcription factors, represents a dysfunctional β cell signature.

The mechanisms that restrict regeneration and maintain cell identity following injury are poorly characterized in higher vertebrates. Following β-cell loss, 1-2% of the glucagon-producing α-cells spontaneously engage in insulin production in mice. Here we explore the mechanisms inhibiting α-cell plasticity. We show that adaptive α-cell identity changes are constrained by intra-islet insulin- and Smoothened-mediated signalling, among others. The combination of β-cell loss or insulin-signalling inhibition, with Smoothened inactivation in α- or δ-cells, stimulates insulin production in more α-cells. These findings suggest that the removal of constitutive 'brake signals' is crucial to neutralize the refractoriness to adaptive cell-fate changes. It appears that the maintenance of cell identity is an active process mediated by repressive signals, which are released by neighbouring cells and curb an intrinsic trend of differentiated cells to change.