Spontaneous recovery from hyperglycemia by regeneration of pancreatic beta-cells in Kir6.2G132S transgenic mice.

The ATP-sensitive K(+) channel (K(ATP) channel) in pancreatic beta-cells is a critical regulator in insulin secretion. We previously reported that transgenic mice expressing a dominant-negative form (Kir6.2G132S) of Kir6.

Lineage tracing and characterization of insulin-secreting cells generated from adult pancreatic acinar cells.

Although several studies have suggested that insulin-secreting cells can be generated in vitro from cells residing in adult exocrine pancreas, neither the origin of these cells nor their precise insulin secretory properties was obtained. We show here that insulin-secreting cells can be derived from adult mouse pancreatic exocrine cells by suspension culture in the presence of EGF and nicotinamide. The frequency of insulin-positive cells was only 0.

Generation of structures formed by lens and retinal cells differentiating from embryonic stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells have the potential to give rise to all cell lineages when introduced into the early embryo. They also give rise to a limited number of different cell types in vitro in specialized culture systems. In this study, we established a culture system in which a structure consisting of lens, neural retina, and pigmented retina was efficiently induced from embryonic stem cells.