Nicotinamide has been reported to induce differentiation of precursor/stem cells toward a -cell phenotype, increase islet regeneration, and enhance insulin biosynthesis. Exposure of INS-1 -cells to elevated glucose leads to reduced insulin gene transcription, and this is associated with diminished binding of pancreatic duodenal homeobox factor 1 (PDX-1) and mammalian homologue of avian MafA/LMaf (MafA). Nicotinamide and other low-potency poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors were thus tested for their ability to restore insulin promoter activity. The low-potency PARP inhibitors nicotinamide, 3-aminobenzamide, or PD128763 increased expression of a human insulin reporter gene suppressed by elevated glucose. In contrast, the potent PARP-1 inhibitors PJ34 or INO-1001 had no effect on promoter activity. Antioxidants, including N-acetylcysteine, lipoic acid, or quercetin, only minimally induced the insulin promoter. Site-directed mutations of the human insulin promoter mapped the low-potency PARP inhibitor response to the C1 element, which serves as a MafA binding site. INS-1 cells exposed to elevated glucose had markedly reduced MafA protein and mRNA levels. Low-potency PARP inhibitors restored MafA mRNA and protein levels, but they had no affect on PDX-1 protein levels or binding activity. Increased MafA expression by low-potency PARP inhibitors was independent of increased MafA protein or mRNA stability. These data suggest that low-potency PARP inhibitors increase insulin biosynthesis, in part, through a mechanism involving increased MafA gene transcription. Diabetes 55: [742][743][744][745][746][747][748][749][750] 2006 A cute elevations in glucose concentration regulate pancreatic -cell function, including stimulation of insulin secretion and biosynthesis. In contrast, chronic exposure of -cells to elevated glucose diminishes cell function by altering -cell gene expression (1) through a poorly understood process termed glucose toxicity. One of the associated outcomes of glucose toxicity on -cells is a reduction in insulin gene expression (1-6) that results from decreased insulin promoter activity (2-4,7-9). The decline in insulin promoter activity correlates to a reduction in expression and/or binding of -cell-enriched transcription factors, including pancreatic duodenal homeobox factor 1 (PDX-1) (1,4 -6,8,10) and mammalian homologue of avian MafA/L-Maf (MafA; also known as RIPE3b1 or C1 activator) (3,4,7, 9,11). The biochemical mechanisms whereby elevated glucose reduced PDX-1 and MafA binding activity are unknown; however, a number of studies support the possible involvement of oxidative stress (6,(11)(12)(13)(14).Nicotinamide has historically been used to augment pancreatic -cell differentiation and protect islet cells from toxic insults. Treatment of cultured fetal human or porcine islet-like cell clusters, pancreatic precursor/stem cells, or embryonic stem cells with nicotinamide enhances the differentiation of -cells, and this is characterized by increased insulin mRNA levels, biosynthes...