The SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex regulates pancreatic endocrine cell expansion and differentiation in mice in vivo.

Aims/hypothesis: Strategies to augment functional beta cell mass include directed differentiation of stem cells towards a beta cell fate, which requires extensive knowledge of transcriptional programs governing endocrine progenitor cell differentiation in vivo. We aimed to study the contributions of the Brahma-related gene-1 (BRG1) and Brahma (BRM) ATPase subunits of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex to endocrine cell development.

Methods: We generated mice with endocrine progenitor-specific Neurog3-Cre BRG1 removal in the presence of heterozygous (Brg1^Δendo;Brm^+/-) or homozygous (double knockout: DKO^Δendo) BRM deficiency. Whole-body metabolic phenotyping, islet function characterisation, islet quantitative PCR and histological characterisation were performed on animals and tissues postnatally. To test the mechanistic actions of SWI/SNF in controlling gene expression during endocrine cell development, single-cell RNA-seq was performed on flow-sorted endocrine-committed cells from embryonic day 15.5 control and mutant embryos.

Results: Brg1^Δendo;Brm^+/- mice exhibit severe glucose intolerance, hyperglycaemia and hypoinsulinaemia, resulting, in part, from reduced islet number; diminished alpha, beta and delta cell mass; compromised islet insulin secretion; and altered islet gene expression programs, including reductions in MAFA and urocortin 3 (UCN3). DKO^Δendo mice were not recovered at weaning; however, postnatal day 6 DKO^Δendo mice were severely hyperglycaemic with reduced serum insulin levels and beta cell area. Single-cell RNA-seq of embryonic day 15.5 lineage-labelled cells revealed endocrine progenitor, alpha and beta cell populations from SWI/SNF mutants have reduced expression of Mafa, Gcg, Ins1 and Ins2, suggesting limited differentiation capacity. Reduced Neurog3 transcripts were discovered in DKO^Δendo endocrine progenitor clusters, and the proliferative capacity of neurogenin 3 (NEUROG3)⁺ cells was reduced in Brg1^Δendo;Brm^+/- and DKO^Δendo mutants.

Conclusions/interpretation: Loss of BRG1 from developing endocrine progenitor cells has a severe postnatal impact on glucose homeostasis, and loss of both subunits impedes animal survival, with both groups exhibiting alterations in hormone transcripts embryonically. Taken together, these data highlight the critical role SWI/SNF plays in governing gene expression programs essential for endocrine cell development and expansion.

Data availability: Raw and processed data for scRNA-seq have been deposited into the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database under the accession number GSE248369.