Articles
The BCBC features background and short reports of ongoing scientific investigations. We select primary research publications, relevant to beta cell biology, and write short synopses on these. Our articles focus on the fundamental advancements that the publications report on and provide a focused view of these.
Featured Article
Exploring pathways to generating beta cells: Transdifferentiation of alpha cells to beta cells following beta cell ablation in adult mice - Apr. 23, 2010
Evidence for beta cell regeneration is limited but there is strong motivation for pursuing an understanding of the mechanisms that potentiate this process in vivo. Under normal physiological conditions, beta cells proliferate very little. However, beta cell regeneration has been observed in children with T1D and in animals using surgical techniques, which induce the process. The cellular origin of newly acquired beta cells in these models has not been well defined. Transdifferentiation, the process by which adult differentiated cells adopt a different cell phenotype has some experimental support albeit only a few studies. Moreover, animal models of beta cell loss are incomplete and/or associated with inflammation or immunity, which confounds data interpretation. To overcome some of these experimental difficulties and to specifically study the regenerative capacity of the beta cell following almost complete loss of resident beta cells, Thorel et al., 2010, developed a transgenic mouse strain in which beta cells could be specifically and almost completely ablated. Using this mouse strain in concert with genetic lineage tracing, the authors investigated the origin of regenerating beta cells following beta cell ablation. Their results demonstrate that following near total cell loss, the pancreas is capable of regenerating new beta cells through the reprogramming of alpha cells.
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Other Articles
Pax4 ectopic expression in the pancreas defines a pathway for beta cell generation in vivo. - Mar. 18, 2010
Small Molecules Direct Embryonic Stem Cells towards Endoderm or Pancreatic Fate - Jun. 29, 2009
Ectopic expression of Ngn3 transforms oval cells in the liver to neo-islets - Jun. 22, 2009
ZnT8 (Slc30A8) is a new antigenic target in type 1 diabetes - Mar. 31, 2009
Reprogramming adult mouse pancreatic exocrine cells to beta cells in vivo - Feb. 10, 2009
Myt1 offsets Ngn's own negative feed-back mechanism to promote islet cell differentiation - Oct. 28, 2008
Claudin-6: A Promising Global Marker of Definitive Endoderm - Feb. 27, 2008
Generation of Beta Cells from Endogenous Progenitors in Injured Adult Mouse Pancreas - Feb. 01, 2008
MafB is an activator of glucagon gene expression in alpha- and beta cells - Jun. 12, 2006
APOCHIP - A Microarray Platform for Studying Beta Cell Apoptosis - Mar. 09, 2006
Keystone Symposium 2006 - Report on Concurrent Islet Meetings - Mar. 03, 2006
Ghrelin cells arise from Ngn3-expressing precursors - Oct. 03, 2005
Report: The 2005 BCBC Kickoff Meeting - Sep. 27, 2005
ISSCR: 2005 Annual Meeting Report - Jul. 05, 2005
CITR - Collaborative Islet Transplant Registry - May. 19, 2005
KLF11 is a glucose-inducible regulator of the insulin gene - Apr. 25, 2005
A new ESC culture protocol for generating islet cells - Apr. 04, 2005
HNF-4a regulates KATP channel-dependent insulin secretion in beta cells - Mar. 17, 2005
Keystone Symposium 2005: Molecular Regulation of Stem Cells - Mar. 01, 2005
Ghrelin cells fill the void - Mar. 01, 2005
The Structure of Insulin - Dec. 13, 2004
Regulation of Insulin Exocytosis by a Novel Islet-Specific microRNA - Dec. 13, 2004
Pancreas-derived multipotent precursors - PMPs to the rescue - Nov. 16, 2004
No adult supervision for beta cells? - Nov. 09, 2004
Insulin - from secretion to action - Oct. 13, 2004
