Post-transcriptional regulation of insulin and insulin like growth factors

Insulin and insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) share significant structural homology and engage common targets of downstream signaling pathways. Insulin, produced solely in pancreatic ß-cells, is critical to maintain a very narrow blood glucose range, while IGFs play a major role in the regulation of cellular processes such as proliferation and survival. Synthesis of both insulin and IGF is coordinately regulated in response to nutrients at the post-transcriptional level by trans-acting and mRNA-binding factors including RNA binding proteins (RBPs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). Those post-transcriptional regulators associate to cis-element of INS or IGF mRNAs and affect gene expression of insulin and IGFs by regulating pre-mRNA splicing as well as mRNA stability and translation. In this chapter, we provide an overview about not only post-transcriptional regulation of insulin and IGFs by various RBPs and non-coding RNAs but also their regulatory mechanism in various systems.