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New Beta Cells Form in
Response to Insulin Resistance
posted September
22,, 2004
New study sheds light on the key
mechanisms by which new pancreatic beta cells normally form in response to insulin resistance.
For years, the body compensates for insulin resistance in order to delay the onset
of clinical type 2 diabetes: The pancreas secretes more insulin and, in
fact, more insulin-producing beta cells form within the pancreas. This formation
of new beta cells is the focus of intensive research: Which cells give rise to these new beta cells and how? (Some researchers, for example, theorize
that the new cells are derived from immature ductal cells--the cells that line
the ducts of the pancreas.) And what signals this replication of beta cells to occur?
To study these questions, the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston; studied
this compensatory growth in two different genetically engineered animal models
of insulin resistance called IR/IRS-1 mice and LIRKO mice.
The results of immunohistochemical staining suggest that these new beta cells are not
derived from duct cells. Rather, the beta-cell growth in insulin-resistant
states occurs by "epithelial-to-mesenchymal
transition," a mechanism in which cells take on a more primitive form and begin
replicating. It is possible that the response originates from potential
beta-cell stem cells, a more primitive cell that has yet to differentiate into a beta cell. They also showed that insufficiency
of a protein called PDX-1, which is critical for the development of pancreatic islets that contain beta cells, limited the growth response
in insulin-resistant states--suggesting that PDX-1 likely plays an important
role in regulating this growth.
"Our paper clearly demonstrates a potential mechanism for beta-cell growth
during insulin resistance, which in turn, occurs as a normal protective response
to delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in obese and other susceptible individuals," says Dr.
Kulkarni, an Investigator in the Cellular and Molecular Physiology Section at
Joslin.
Source:Diabetes In Control.com: September 2004 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
September 2004 News Article Index
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