islets

[Nature Reviews Drug Discovery] Scientists discuss the state of the art of stem cell differentiation and islet engineering, reflect on current and future challenges in the area and highlight the potential for cell replacement therapies, disease modelling and drug development using these cells.

[Scientific Reports] Researchers elucidated the effects of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor and/or sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor on β-cell mass and function and compared their effects between in an early and advanced phase of diabetes.

[Journal of Molecular Medicine] Scientists showed that proteomic analyses of pancreas tissue from non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice suggested that FhHDM-1 activated the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway, which was associated with β-cell metabolism, survival and proliferation.

[Journal of Molecular Endocrinology] A mechanism of dexamethasone-induced pancreatic β-cell apoptosis through the TRAIL pathway was investigated in cultured cells and isolated mouse islets.

[Nature Protocols] Investigators detailed a six-stage planar differentiation methodology for generating human pluripotent stem cell–derived pancreatic β cells that secreted high amounts of insulin in response to glucose stimulation.

[Cell Reports] Researchers identified pleckstrin homology domain leucine-rich repeat protein phosphatases 1 and 2 as phosphatases whose upregulation led to β-cell failure in diabetes.