Reformed islets: a long-term primary cell platform for exploring mouse and human islet biology.

Pancreatic islets are 3D micro-organs that maintain β-cell functionality through cell-cell and cell-matrix communication. While primary islets, the gold standard for in vitro models, have a short culture life of approximately 1-2 weeks, we developed a novel protocol that employs reformed islets following dispersion coupled with a fine-tuned culture environment. Reformed islets exhibit physiological characteristics similar to primary islets, enabling high-resolution imaging and repeated functional assessment.

Rewiring of primary metabolism for ammonium recycling under short-term low CO treatment - its implication for C evolution.

The dramatic decrease in atmospheric CO concentration during Oligocene was proposed as directly linked to C evolution. However, it remains unclear how the decreased CO concentration directly facilitate C evolution, besides its role as a selection pressure. We conducted a systematic transcriptomics and metabolomics analysis under short-term low CO condition and found that grown under this condition showed 1) increased expression of most genes encoding C-related enzymes and transporters; 2) increased expression of genes involved in photorespiration and pathways related to carbon skeleton generation for ammonium refixation; 3) increased expression of genes directly involved in ammonium refixation.