Insulin is secreted from the pancreatic β-cells in response to elevated glucose. In intact islets the capacity for insulin release is determined by a complex interplay between different cell types. This has made it difficult to specifically assess the role of β-cell defects to the insulin secretory impairment in type 2 diabetes. Here we describe a new approach, based on optogenetics, that enables specific investigation of β-cells in intact islets.

We used transgenic mice expressing the light-sensitive cation channel Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) under control of the insulin promoter. Glucose tolerance in vivo was assessed using intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests, and glucose-induced insulin release was measured from static batch incubations. ChR2 localization was determined by fluorescence confocal microscopy. The effect of ChR2 stimulation with blue LED light was assessed using Ca²⁺ imaging and static islet incubations.

Light stimulation of islets from transgenic ChR2 mice triggered prompt increases in intracellular Ca²⁺. Moreover, light stimulation enhanced insulin secretion in batch-incubated islets at low and intermediate but not at high glucose concentrations. Glucagon release was not affected. Beta-cells from mice rendered diabetic on a high-fat diet exhibited a 3.5-fold increase in light-induced Ca²⁺ influx compared with mice on a control diet. Furthermore, light enhanced insulin release also at high glucose in these mice, suggesting that high-fat feeding leads to a compensatory potentiation of the Ca²⁺ response in β-cells.

The results demonstrate the usefulness and versatility of optogenetics for studying mechanisms of perturbed hormone secretion in diabetes with high time-resolution and cell-specificity.