The pancreatic β-cells are essential for regulating glucose homeostasis through the coordinated release of the insulin hormone. Dysfunction of the highly specialized β-cells results in diabetes mellitus, a growing global health epidemic. In this review, we describe the development and function of β-cells the emerging concept of heterogeneity within insulin-producing cells, and the potential of other cell types to assume β-cell functionality via transdifferentiation. We also discuss emerging routes to design cells with minimal β-cell properties and human stem cell differentiation efforts that carry the promise to restore normoglycemia in patients suffering from diabetes.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9159263 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a040741 | DOI Listing |
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