Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Diabetes

Controlling the identity of the adult pancreatic β cell

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Endocrinology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Understanding how pancreatic β cells achieve and maintain functional identity as insulin-secreting cells is a major roadblock in our understanding of the aetiology of diabetes mellitus. Three new papers reveal the roles, in the adult β cell, of four transcription factors that are crucial for reprogramming a multipotent endocrine progenitor.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1: Regulation of β cell identity in health and in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

References

  1. Talchai, C. et al. Pancreatic ß cell dedifferentiation as a mechanism of diabetic ß cell failure. Cell 150, 1223–1234 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Swisa, A. et al. PAX6 maintains ß cell identity by repressing genes of alternative islet cell types. J. Clin. Invest. 127, 230–243 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Dominguez Gutierrez, G. et al. Pancreatic ß cell identity requires continual repression of non-ß cell programs. J. Clin. Invest. 127, 244–259 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ediger, B. N. et al. LIM domain-binding 1 maintains the terminally differentiated state of pancreatic ß cells. J. Clin. Invest. 127, 215–229 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zaret, K. S. & Grompe, M. Generation and regeneration of cells of the liver and pancreas. Science 322, 1490–1494 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ahlqvist, E. et al. A common variant upstream of the PAX6 gene influences islet function in man. Diabetologia 55, 94–104 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ahmad, Z. et al. Pax6 inactivation in the adult pancreas reveals ghrelin as endocrine cell maturation marker. PLoS ONE 10, e0144597 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Piccand, J. et al. Rfx6 maintains the functional identity of adult pancreatic β cells. Cell Rep. 9, 2219–2232 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Pullen, T. J. & Rutter, G. A. When less is more: the forbidden fruits of gene repression in the adult ß-cell. Diabetes Obes. Metab. 15, 503–512 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Johnston, N. R. et al. Beta cell hubs dictate pancreatic islet responses to glucose. Cell Metab. 24, 389–401 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (WT098424AIA), MRC Programmes (MR/J0003042/1, MR/L020149/1) and Experimental Challenge Grant (DIVA, MR/L02036X/1), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/J015873/1), MRC (MR/N00275X/1), Diabetes UK (BDA/11/0004210, BDA/15/0005275, BDA 16/0005485), Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) grants and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Diabetes, Section of Cell Biology and Functional Genomics, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK

    Guy A. Rutter

Authors
  1. Guy A. Rutter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guy A. Rutter.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rutter, G. Controlling the identity of the adult pancreatic β cell. Nat Rev Endocrinol 13, 129–130 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2017.1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2017.1

  • Springer Nature Limited

Search

Navigation