12328 Multimodal Imaging Reveals Changes In Beta Cell Metabolism And Heterogeneity Throughout Pregnancy

Abstract Disclosure: J.M. Cuala: None. T. Singh: None. C. Deng: None. K. Jayapalan: None. S. Dhawan: None. K. White: None. S. Georgia: None. During pregnancy, a unique, transient metabolic stressor, pancreatic islets adapt by balancing hormone production to maintain tight glucose homeostasis. Maternal insulin demand increases as systemic insulin resistance increases. To keep up with the increase in demand, beta cell functional dynamics change throughout pregnancy, including increasing insulin synthesis and lowering the threshold for glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). Failure to adapt can lead to gestational diabetes (GD), a complication in 14% of pregnancies worldwide, feeding into a vicious cycle of impaired function and, eventually, hyperglycemia. Fundamentally, beta cell function is dictated by its metabolism, calcium signaling, and insulin content upon glucose stimulation. To better understand how beta cell maladaptation during pregnancy leads to gestational diabetes, we propose to apply a multidisciplinary approach to integrate novel tools to assess function and metabolism fluctuations throughout normal pregnancy. Using live isolated islets from wild-type C57BL/6 (BL6) and InsCre-gCAMP6f fl/fl (INS-gCAMP) mice, we will measure GSIS and take 4D images using metabolic fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and confocal microscopy to visualize and quantify metabolic and functional changes at different time points at cellular resolution. We expect functional and metabolic capacity levels to increase during the onset of beta cell remodeling (∼Day 8) and continue to peak throughout pregnancy. In contrast, changes in beta cell heterogeneity become more evident at the peaks of beta cell proliferation and expansion (∼Day 11-14). The proposed study will implement novel techniques to establish beta cell functional and metabolic information within a 3D pancreatic islet context throughout different time points of pregnancy. With this, we will provide greater insight into beta cell biology and its adaptation to metabolic stress to better understand the progression of gestational diabetes, which can then be applied to investigate other cellular adaptive dynamics that affect health and disease. Presentation: 6/2/2024