Indeed, decreased expression of exocytotic SNARE proteins in pancreatic islets is a postulated mechanism behind impaired insulin release, demonstrated by significantly reduced mRNA and protein levels in both rodent models of type 2 diabetes (Nagamatsu et al., 1999; Gaisano et al., 2002; Zhang et al., 2002) and islets of type 2 diabetic patients (Ostenson and Efendic, 2007). Here, INS is linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus.