Postmortem Brains from Subjects with Diabetes Mellitus Display Reduced GLUT4 Expression and Soma Area in Hippocampal Neurons: Potential Involvement of Inflammation

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an important risk factor for dementia, which is a common neurodegenerative disorder. DM is known to activate inflammation, oxidative stress, and advanced glycation end products (AGEs) generation, all capable of inducing neuronal dysfunctions, thus participating in the neurodegeneration progress. In that process, disturbed neuronal glucose supply plays a key role, which in hippocampal neurons is controlled by the insulin-sensitive glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4). We investigated the expression of GLUT4, nuclear factor NF-kappa B subunit p65 [NFKB (p65)], carboxymethyllysine and synapsin1 (immunohistochemistry), and soma area in human postmortem hippocampal samples from control, obese, and obese+DM subjects (41 subjects). Moreover, in human SH-SY5Y neurons, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and glycated albumin (GA) effects were investigated in GLUT4, synapsin-1 (SYN1), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), synaptophysin (SYP) proteins, and respective genes; NFKB binding activity in the SLC2A4 promoter; effects of increased histone acetylation grade by histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) inhibition. Hippocampal neurons (CA4 area) of obese+DM subjects displayed reduced GLUT4 expression and neuronal soma area, associated with increased expression of NFKB (p65). Challenges with TNF and GA decreased the SLC2A4/GLUT4 expression in SH-SY5Y neurons. TNF decreased SYN1, TH, and SYP mRNAs and respective proteins, and increased NFKB binding activity in the SLC2A4 promoter. Inhibition of HDAC3 increased the SLC2A4 expression and the total neuronal content of CRE-binding proteins (CREB/ICER), and also counterbalanced the repressor effect of TNF upon these parameters. This study revealed reduced postmortem human hippocampal GLUT4 content and neuronal soma area accompanied by increased proinflammatory activity in the brains of DM subjects. In isolated human neurons, inflammatory activation by TNF reduced not only the SLC2A4/GLUT4 expression but also the expression of some genes related to neuronal function (SYN1, TH, SYP). These effects may be related to epigenetic regulations (H3Kac and H4Kac status) since they can be counterbalanced by inhibiting HDAC3. These results uncover the improvement in GLUT4 expression and/or the inhibition of HDAC3 as promising therapeutic targets to fight DM-related neurodegeneration.

Automated summary

Diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for dementia and can induce neuronal dysfunctions through inflammation and other processes. This study found that obese individuals with diabetes had reduced GLUT4 expression and neuronal soma area in the hippocampus. Inflammatory activation decreased GLUT4 expression and negatively affected genes related to neuronal function. Inhibiting HDAC3 could potentially improve GLUT4 expression and counteract the negative effects of inflammation.