Insulin is an important hormone that helps balance blood sugar levels in the body. The pancreas produces multiple types of beta cells that help produce insulin.
However, losing a particular type of beta cell may cause diabetes.
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine carried out a study to determine the number of different beta cell types present in the pancreas.
They used a technique called single-cell transcriptomics to measure the genes expressed in individual mouse beta cells and then grouped them into four types.
They found that cluster 1 beta cells produced more insulin than other beta cells and appeared better able to metabolize sugar.
The cluster 1 beta cells had a unique gene expression signature that included high expression of genes that help cellular powerhouses called mitochondria to break down sugar and power them to secrete more insulin.
Additionally, they could distinguish the cluster 1 beta cells from other beta cell types by its high expression of the CD63 gene, which enabled them to use the CD63 protein as a marker for this specific beta cell type.
When the team looked at both human and mouse beta cells, they found that cluster 1 beta cells with high CD63 gene expression produce more insulin in response to sugar than the three other types of beta cells with low CD63 expression.
The loss of these high-functioning beta cells may lead to less insulin production and play a major role in diabetes development.
Transplanting beta cells with high CD63 production into mice with type 2 diabetes restored their blood sugar levels to normal. But removing the transplanted cells caused high blood sugar levels to return.
Transplanting low CD63 production beta cells into the mice didn’t restore blood sugar to normal levels. The transplanted low CD63 beta cells instead appeared dysfunctional.
This discovery may have important implications for the use of beta cell transplants to treat diabetes. It may be better to transplant only high CD63 beta cells.
The team also found that humans with type 2 diabetes had lower levels of high CD63 beta cells compared to those without diabetes.
Next, the researchers would like to find out what happens to the high CD63-producing beta cells in mice with diabetes and how to keep them from disappearing.
They would also like to study how existing diabetes treatments affect all types of beta cells.
GLP-1 agonists, which help increase the release of insulin in people with diabetes, interact with high and low CD63-producing beta cells.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies that flaxseed oil is more beneficial than fish oil to people with diabetes, and Stanford study finds drug that prevents kidney failure in diabetes.
For more information about diabetes and health, please see recent studies about the normal blood sugar for people with diabetes, and heavy cannabis use may decrease the incidence of diabetes.
The study was conducted by Alfonso Rubio-Navarro et al and published in Nature Cell Biology.
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