Endocrine Abstracts

The insulin gene is expressed almost exclusively in the β cells of the islets of Langerhans, where transcriptional control is conferred by cis-acting regulatory sequences located within 300–400 base pairs from the transcription start site. These elements bind β-cell restricted (e.g. PDX-1) and ubiquitous (E47) transcription factors. In non-β cells the insulin gene is localised within tightly packed (hetero) chromatin structures. Developments in under...

The shortage of donor material has driven research towards finding a replenishable supply of islets for transplantation. We have previously shown that the exocrine material that results as a by-product of the islet isolation procedure can be transdifferentiated towards functional islet-like structures by overexpression of the pancreatic transcription factors (TFs) Pdx1, MafA, Ngn3 and Pax4 followed by culture in the presence of betacellulin, nicotinamide and exendin-4. These c...