Featured Review Cellscience Reviews Vol 5 No 1 ISSN 1742-8130

Novel factors regulating endogenous β-cell mass

Pancreatic β-cell loss by apoptosis is a major problem of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, approaches to replace the lost β-cell mass by transplantation of donor islets or non-immunogenic β-cell substitutes has proven more difficult and less successful than thought several years ago. In addition it has become apparent that, unlike in rodents, the capacity of β-cells to regenerate is highly limited in humans. It therefore would seem that approaches that target preservation of the existing β-cell mass might be more successful. In this review we are focusing on advances that have been made recently in that regard and on novel therapeutic targets such as thioredoxin-interacting protein that could be used to promote and protect the patient’s own functional β-cell mass.

Click to access complete issue ($10.49) and to download full article in or formats