Endocrine Abstracts

The mechanisms through which pancreatic beta cells recognise and respond to external signals Type 2 diabetes is becoming increasing well understood, but we have less understanding of how the responses of individual cells are integrated within the islet of Langerhans. Islets are heterogenous organs containing a variety of endocrine cell types including beta, alpha, delta and PP cells which synthesise and secrete insulin, glucagon, somatostatin and pancreatic polypeptide, respec...

Beta-cell failure is central to the pathogenenis of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In type 1 diabetes immune-mediated beta-cell destruction takes place, whereas in type 2 diabetes metabolic factors are believed to induce progressively deteriation of beta-cell function and finally reduced beta-cell mass. The proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 could be a mediator of the beta-cell failure in both diseases: In type 1 diabetes by the secretion from actived macrophage...

Accumulated knowledge in the last five years suggests that components of the unfolded protein response (UPR) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) play a dual role in pancreatic beta cells, acting as regulators under physiological conditions or as triggers of beta cell dysfunction and death under situations of chronic and/or severe ER stress. These observations indicate that the large capacity of beta cells to synthesize, sort and secrete insulin may also make them vulnerable to c...

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) are incretin hormones secreted by gut endocrine cells that act on structurally related β-cell G protein coupled receptors to trigger glucose-dependent insulin secretion. Both peptide hormones augment glucose-stimulated insulin secretion although the actions of GIP are diminished in the setting of hyperglycemia. Moreover, the two incretin hormones, and their structurally related receptor...