Email this page

Print this page

Article Addendum

In vivo functional heterogeneity among β-cells

Melis Karaca

This is an open-access article

 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.

The concept of functional heterogeneity among β-cells proposes that each cell differs in its sensitivity to glucose and is recruited in a glucose-dependent manner into both biosynthetic and secretory active states in order to adapt insulin secretion to the metabolic environment. Therefore, characterization of β-cell populations with different metabolic sensitivities would lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies. Based on heterogeneous surface PSA-NCAM expression on β-cells, we have recently characterized two groups of cells, namely β^high and β^low-cells, in rat. Differences in insulin secretory capacity and in gene expression profiles suggest that βlow-cells are immature and/or non-functional cells in contrast to highly glucose responsive fully functional β^high-cells. Moreover, the relative distribution of β^high and β^low-cells correlated with physiological and pathological states regarding the functional β-cell mass. Here we summarize our main results on β^high and β^low-cell populations and discuss some of the open remaining questions.

Karaca M, Castel J, Tourrel-Cuzin C, Brun M, Géant A, Dubois M, Catesson S, Rodriguez M, Luquet S, Cattan P, Lockhart B, Lang J, Ktorza A, Magnan C, Kargar C. Exploring functional beta-cell heterogeneity in vivo using PSA-NCAM as a specific marker. PLoS One 2009; 4:e5555.

Authors

Melis Karaca

Unité Biologie Fonctionnelle et Adaptative, CNRS EAC 7059; Université Denis Diderot; Paris, France

This is an open-access article

 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.