Solute Carrier Family 30 Member 8 (SLC30A8)

SLC30A8 is expressed at a high level only in the pancreas, particularly in islets of Langerhans. The protein colocalizes with insulin in the secretory pathway granules of the insulin-secreting INS-1 cells. Allelic variants of this gene exist that confer susceptibility to diabetes mellitus, noninsulin-dependent. Several transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.It was also expressed in fetal pancreas, islets of Langerhans, and an insulinoma cell line, but not in HeLa cells. Fluorescence-tagged ZNT8 was expressed in a punctate pattern in the cytoplasm of transfected insulinoma cells and HeLa cells. In insulinoma cells, ZNT8 expression overlapped that of insulin, suggesting that ZNT8 is associated with insulin granule secretion.