scholarly journals Islet Regeneration: Endogenous and Exogenous Approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 3306
Author(s):  
Fiona M. Docherty ◽  
Lori Sussel

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are characterized by a progressive loss of beta cell mass that contributes to impaired glucose homeostasis. Although an optimal treatment option would be to simply replace the lost cells, it is now well established that unlike many other organs, the adult pancreas has limited regenerative potential. For this reason, significant research efforts are focusing on methods to induce beta cell proliferation (replication of existing beta cells), promote beta cell formation from alternative endogenous cell sources (neogenesis), and/or generate beta cells from pluripotent stem cells. In this article, we will review (i) endogenous mechanisms of beta cell regeneration during steady state, stress and disease; (ii) efforts to stimulate endogenous regeneration and transdifferentiation; and (iii) exogenous methods of beta cell generation and transplantation.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebeca Fernandez-Ruiz ◽  
Ainhoa García-Alamán ◽  
Yaiza Esteban ◽  
Joan Mir-Coll ◽  
Berta Serra-Navarro ◽  
...  

AbstractExpanding the mass of pancreatic insulin-producing beta cells through re-activation of beta cell replication has been proposed as a therapy to prevent or delay the appearance of diabetes. Pancreatic beta cells exhibit an age-dependent decrease in their proliferative activity, partly related to changes in the systemic environment. Here we report the identification of CCN4/Wisp1 as a circulating factor more abundant in pre-weaning than in adult mice. We show that Wisp1 promotes endogenous and transplanted adult beta cell proliferation in vivo. We validate these findings using isolated mouse and human islets and find that the beta cell trophic effect of Wisp1 is dependent on Akt signaling. In summary, our study reveals the role of Wisp1 as an inducer of beta cell replication, supporting the idea that the use of young blood factors may be a useful strategy to expand adult beta cell mass.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuno Omori ◽  
Akinobu Nakamura ◽  
Hideaki Miyoshi ◽  
Yuki Yamauchi ◽  
Shinichiro Kawata ◽  
...  

Efficacy of glucokinase activation on glycemic control is limited to a short-term period. One reason might be related with the excess glucose signalling by glucokinase activation towards beta-cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of glucokinase haploinsufficiency on glucose tolerance as well as beta-cell function and mass using a mouse model of type 2 diabetes. Our results showed that <i>db/db</i> mice with glucokinase haploinsufficiency presented amelioration of glucose tolerance by augmented insulin secretion associated with the increase in beta-cell mass when compared with <i>db/db</i> mice. Gene expression profiling, and immunohistochemical and metabolomic analyses revealed that glucokinase haploinsufficiency in the islets of <i>db/db</i> mice was associated with lower expression of stress-related genes, higher expression of transcription factors involved in the maintenance and maturation of beta-cell function, less mitochondrial damage, and a superior metabolic pattern. These effects of glucokinase haploinsufficiency could preserve beta-cell mass under diabetic conditions. These findings verified our hypothesis that optimizing excess glucose signalling in beta-cells by inhibiting glucokinase could prevent beta-cell insufficiency, leading to improving glucose tolerance in diabetes status by preserving beta-cell mass. Therefore, glucokinase inactivation in beta-cells could, paradoxically, be a potential strategy for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juxiang Yang ◽  
Batoul Hammoud ◽  
Abigail Ridler ◽  
Amanda M Ackermann ◽  
Kyoung-Jae Won ◽  
...  

Objective: Hypoxic injuries occurring during the perinatal period can lead to persistent hyperinsulinism and profound hypoglycemia in newborns. We studied the impact of hypoxia-inducible pathway on the postnatal beta-cell function. Methods: Rat pups were treated daily between postnatal day (P)7 to P10 with adaptaquin (AQ), an inhibitor of prolyl hydroxylases, leading to stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor 1A (HIF1A). In parallel, mouse pups were placed in a hypoxic chamber between embryonic day (E)19 to P6. Dynamic insulin secretion was assessed in both models by islet perifusions. Changes in gene expression were assessed by whole-islet RNA sequencing. Results: AQ-treated rat pups and hypoxic mouse pups were hypoglycemic and had higher levels of serum insulin. The AQ-/hypoxia-treated islets showed a decreased glucose threshold for insulin secretion compared to controls, indicative of a delay in beta-cell postnatal functional maturation. Islet morphometric analysis in the AQ-treated pups showed an increase in insulin area per pancreas, but no change in the number of islets or in the number of beta-cells per islet, consistent with a higher average size of beta-cells. Differential transcriptomic analysis showed upregulation of the expected HIF1A target genes. AQ-treated rat pups had decreased expression of cell cycle genes and decreased numbers of proliferating beta;-cells. Conclusion: We showed that hypoxia and pharmacologic activation of the hypoxia inducible pathway in early postnatal period leads to hyperinsulinism, due to the persistence of a low glucose threshold for insulin secretion. This exaggerated activation of hypoxia pathway also decreased early postnatal beta-cell proliferation, suggesting it can impact adult beta-cell mass and diabetes risk.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuno Omori ◽  
Akinobu Nakamura ◽  
Hideaki Miyoshi ◽  
Yuki Yamauchi ◽  
Shinichiro Kawata ◽  
...  

Efficacy of glucokinase activation on glycemic control is limited to a short-term period. One reason might be related with the excess glucose signalling by glucokinase activation towards beta-cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of glucokinase haploinsufficiency on glucose tolerance as well as beta-cell function and mass using a mouse model of type 2 diabetes. Our results showed that <i>db/db</i> mice with glucokinase haploinsufficiency presented amelioration of glucose tolerance by augmented insulin secretion associated with the increase in beta-cell mass when compared with <i>db/db</i> mice. Gene expression profiling, and immunohistochemical and metabolomic analyses revealed that glucokinase haploinsufficiency in the islets of <i>db/db</i> mice was associated with lower expression of stress-related genes, higher expression of transcription factors involved in the maintenance and maturation of beta-cell function, less mitochondrial damage, and a superior metabolic pattern. These effects of glucokinase haploinsufficiency could preserve beta-cell mass under diabetic conditions. These findings verified our hypothesis that optimizing excess glucose signalling in beta-cells by inhibiting glucokinase could prevent beta-cell insufficiency, leading to improving glucose tolerance in diabetes status by preserving beta-cell mass. Therefore, glucokinase inactivation in beta-cells could, paradoxically, be a potential strategy for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa L. Mastracci ◽  
Stephanie C. Colvin ◽  
Leah R. Padgett ◽  
Raghavendra G. Mirmira

ABSTRACTEukaryotic initiation factor 5A (EIF5A) is found in diabetes-susceptibility loci in mouse and human. eIF5A is the only protein known to contain hypusine (hydroxyputrescine lysine), a polyamine-derived amino acid formed post-translationally in a reaction catalyzed by deoxyhypusine synthase (DHPS). Previous studies showed pharmacologic blockade of DHPS in type 1 diabetic NOD mice and type 2 diabetic db/db mice improved glucose tolerance and preserved beta-cell mass, which suggests that hypusinated eIF5A (eIF5AHyp) may play a role in diabetes pathogenesis by direct action on the beta cells and/or altering the adaptive or innate immune responses. To translate these findings to human, we examined tissue from individuals with and without type 1 and type 2 diabetes to determine the expression of eIF5AHyp. We detected eIF5AHyp in beta cells, exocrine cells and immune cells; however, there was also unexpected enrichment of eIF5AHyp in pancreatic polypeptide-expressing PP cells. Interestingly, the presence of eIF5AHyp co-expressing PP cells was not enhanced with disease. These data identify new aspects of eIF5A biology and highlight the need to examine human tissue to understand disease.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Rosselot ◽  
Alexandra Alvarsson ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
Yansui Li ◽  
Kunal Kumar ◽  
...  

AbstractSince all diabetes results from reductions in numbers of functional pancreatic beta cells, beta cell regenerative drugs are required for optimal and scalable future diabetes treatment. While many diabetes drugs are in clinical use, none increases human beta cell numbers. We have shown that a combination of the DYRK1A inhibitor, harmine, with the GLP1 receptor agonist, exendin-4, markedly increases human beta cell proliferation in vitro. However, technological limitations have prevented assessment of human beta cell mass in vivo. Here, we describe a novel method that combines iDISCO+ tissue clearing, insulin immunolabeling, light sheet microscopy, and volumetric quantification of human beta cells transplanted into immunodeficient mice. We demonstrate a striking seven-fold in vivo increase in human beta cell mass in response to three months of combined harmine-exendin-4 combination infusion, accompanied by lower blood glucose levels, increased plasma human insulin concentrations and enhanced beta cell proliferation. These studies unequivocally demonstrate for the first time that pharmacologic human beta cell expansion is a realistic and achievable path to diabetes therapy, and provide a rigorous, entirely novel and reproducible tool for quantifying human beta cell mass in vivo.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 5303
Author(s):  
Safia Costes ◽  
Gyslaine Bertrand ◽  
Magalie A. Ravier

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia secondary to the decline of functional beta-cells and is usually accompanied by a reduced sensitivity to insulin. Whereas altered beta-cell function plays a key role in T2D onset, a decreased beta-cell mass was also reported to contribute to the pathophysiology of this metabolic disease. The decreased beta-cell mass in T2D is, at least in part, attributed to beta-cell apoptosis that is triggered by diabetogenic situations such as amyloid deposits, lipotoxicity and glucotoxicity. In this review, we discussed the molecular mechanisms involved in pancreatic beta-cell apoptosis under such diabetes-prone situations. Finally, we considered the molecular signaling pathways recruited by glucagon-like peptide-1-based therapies to potentially protect beta-cells from death under diabetogenic situations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasna Maachi ◽  
Julien Ghislain ◽  
Caroline Tremblay ◽  
Vincent Poitout

ABSTRACTThe potential to treat diabetes by increasing beta-cell mass is driving a major effort to identify beta-cell mitogens. Demonstration of mitogen activity in human beta cells is frequently performed in ex vivo assays. However, disparities in the efficacy of beta-cell mitogens between studies led us to investigate the sources of this variability. We obtained 27 male (16) and female (11) human islet batches from multiple centers covering a range of donor ages (18-65 years) and BMI (16.4-38.5). Islets were kept intact or dispersed into single cells and cultured in the presence of the beta-cell mitogens harmine, glucose, and heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF), and subsequently analyzed for cell proliferation by immunochemistry or flow cytometry. Harmine and HB-EGF promoted human beta-cell proliferation, whereas the effect of glucose was assay-dependent. In addition, harmine potently stimulated alpha-cell proliferation and both harmine and HB-EGF increased proliferation of insulin- and glucagon-negative cells, including cytokeratin 19-positive cells. These results suggest that assessment of beta-cell mitogens requires complementary approaches and rigorous identification of cell identity. This is better achieved by flow cytometry that eliminates the subjectivity of visual scoring and enables simultaneous assessment of several endocrine and proliferation markers in higher numbers of cells.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Seiron ◽  
Anna Wiberg ◽  
Lars Krogvold ◽  
Frode Lars Jahnsen ◽  
Knut Dahl-Jørgensen ◽  
...  

AbstractInsulin deficiency in type 1 diabetes (T1D) is generally considered a consequence of specific beta-cell loss. Since healthy pancreatic islets consist of ~65% beta cells, this would lead to reduced islet size if the beta cells are not replaced by other cells or tissue. The number of islets per pancreas volume (islet density) would not be affected.In this study, we compared the islet density, size, and size distribution in subjects with recent-onset or long-standing T1D, with that in matched non-diabetic subjects. Results show that subjects with T1D, regardless of disease duration, had a dramatically reduced islet number per mm2, while the islet size was similar in all groups. Insulin-negative islets in T1D subjects were dominated by glucagon-positive cells that frequently had lost the alpha-cell transcription factor ARX while instead expressing PDX1, normally expressed in beta cells.Based on our findings, we propose that failure during childhood to establish a sufficient islet number to reach the beta-cell mass needed to cope with episodes of increased insulin demand contributes to T1D susceptibility. Exhaustion induced by relative lack of beta cells could then potentially drive beta-cell dedifferentiation to alpha-cells, explaining the preserved islet size observed in T1D compared to controls.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e000921
Author(s):  
Weixia Yang ◽  
Yinan Jiang ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
Ting Zhang ◽  
Qun Liu ◽  
...  

ObjectivePancreatic beta cells proliferate in response to metabolic requirements during pregnancy, while failure of this response may cause gestational diabetes. A member of the vascular endothelial growth factor family, placental growth factor (PlGF), typically plays a role in metabolic disorder and pathological circumstance. The expression and function of PlGF in the endocrine pancreas have not been reported and are addressed in the current study.Research design and methodsPlGF levels in beta cells were determined by immunostaining or ELISA in purified beta cells in non-pregnant and pregnant adult mice. An adeno-associated virus (AAV) serotype 8 carrying a shRNA for PlGF under the control of a rat insulin promoter (AAV–rat insulin promoter (RIP)–short hairpin small interfering RNA for PlGF (shPlGF)) was prepared and infused into mouse pancreas through the pancreatic duct to specifically knock down PlGF in beta cells, and its effects on beta-cell growth were determined by beta-cell proliferation, beta-cell mass and insulin release. A macrophage-depleting reagent, clodronate, was coapplied into AAV-treated mice to study crosstalk between beta cells and macrophages.ResultsPlGF is exclusively produced by beta cells in the adult mouse pancreas. Moreover, PlGF expression in beta cells was significantly increased during pregnancy. Intraductal infusion of AAV–RIP–shPlGF specifically knocked down PlGF in beta cells, resulting in compromised beta-cell proliferation, reduced growth in beta-cell mass and impaired glucose tolerance during pregnancy. Mechanistically, PlGF depletion in beta cells reduced islet infiltration of trophic macrophages, which appeared to be essential for gestational beta-cell growth.ConclusionsOur study suggests that increased expression of PlGF in beta cells may trigger gestational beta-cell growth through recruited macrophages.


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