Diabetes is often associated with vitamin A disorders. All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is the main active constituent of vitamin A. We aimed to investigate whether ATRA influences diabetic progression and its mechanisms using both Goto-Kazizazi (GK) rats and INS-1 cells. Rat experiments demonstrated that ATRA treatment worsened diabetes symptoms, as evidenced by an increase in fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels and impairment of glucose homeostasis. Importantly, ATRA impaired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) and increased the expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c) and uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in the rat pancreas. Data from INS-1 cells also showed that ATRA upregulated SREBP-1c and UCP2 expression and impaired GSIS at 23 mM glucose. Srebp-1c or Ucp2 silencing attenuated GSIS impairment by reversing the ATRA-induced increase in UCP2 expression and decrease in ATP content. ATRA and the retinoid X receptor (RXR) agonists 9-cis RA and LG100268 induced the gene expression of Srebp-1c, which was almost completely abolished by the RXR antagonist HX531. RXRα-LBD luciferase reporter plasmid experiments also demonstrated that ATRA concentration-dependently activated RXRα, the EC50 of which was 1.37 μM, which was lower than the ATRA concentration in the pancreas of GK rats treated with a high dose of ATRA (approximately 3 μM), inferring that ATRA can upregulate Srebp-1c expression in the pancreas by activating RXR. In conclusion, ATRA impaired GSIS partly by activating the RXR/SREBP-1c/UCP2 pathway, thus worsening diabetic symptoms. The results highlight the roles of ATRA in diabetic progression and establish new strategies for diabetes treatment.
