Abstract

Metabolic syndrome is a collection of disorders related to metabolisms such as obesity, lipid disorders, hyper/hypoglycemia, ... Metabolic syndrome can lead to cardiovascular diseases, strokes, and diabetes - the leading death causes in the world. In many cases, metabolic disorders are original by the redundant/ reduction of insulin- the most important hormone in metabolism regulation. Both of them are involved in beta-cells dysfunction. Many mechanisms related to this phenomenon has been approved, notably mitochondrial dysfunction and the Ubiquitin proteasome system impairment. UCH-L1 is a protein belonging to the Ubiquitin proteasome system and highly expressed in beta cells. Previous studies reported that decrease UCH-L1 function can alter metabolism and lead to b cell apoptosis under various nutritional conditions, however, the mechanism has not been clarified. In this study, we proposed a Drosophila melanogaster model that expresses many symptoms of metabolic syndrome, by knocking down dUCH (Drosophila homolog of UCH-L1) specifically in Insulin-producing cells. Our fruit fly model had abnormal metabolism, physiology, loss of insulinproducing cells, and mitochondria over-workload, similar to metabolic syndrome in humans. These results suggested that this model is suitable for further studies on the role of UCH-L1 in b cells, as well as a potential model in metabolism diseases' drug screening.