Substrate-favored lysosomal and proteasomal pathways participate in the normal balance control of insulin precursor maturation and disposal in β-cells.

Our recent studies have uncovered that aggregation-prone proinsulin preserves a low relative folding rate and maintains a homeostatic balance of natively and non-natively folded states (i.e., proinsulin homeostasis, PIHO) in β-cells as a result of the integration of maturation and disposal processes. Control of precursor maturation and disposal is thus an early regulative mechanism in the insulin production of β-cells. Herein, we show pathways involved in the disposal of endogenous proinsulin at the early secretory pathway. We conducted metabolic-labeling, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry studies to examine the effects of selective proteasome and lysosome or autophagy inhibitors on the kinetics of proinsulin and control proteins in various post-translational courses. Our metabolic-labeling studies found that the main lysosomal and ancillary proteasomal pathways participate in the heavy clearance of insulin precursor in mouse islets/β-cells cultured at the mimic physiological glucose concentrations. Further immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry studies in cloned β-cells validated that among secretory proteins, insulin precursor is heavily and preferentially removed. The rapid disposal of a large amount of insulin precursor after translation is achieved mainly through lysosomal autophagy and the subsequent basal disposals are carried out by both lysosomal and proteasomal pathways within a 30 to 60-minute post-translational process. The findings provide the first clear demonstration that lysosomal and proteasomal pathways both play roles in the normal maintenance of PIHO for insulin production, and defined the physiological participation of lysosomal autophagy in the protein quality control at the early secretory pathway of pancreatic β-cells.