Neogenesis… An interesting find for diabetics!

For any type 1 diabetics out there, or anyone interested in some really neat information! I came across this very interesting study that is sure prompting me to have second thoughts!  It addresses the question of whether or not beta cells can regenerate after neonatal time of life… I have only read through this once, but there seems to be some clues that will help put pieces together… Going to go ahead and share this now since it was quite exciting to see that YES the cells CAN regenerate!  Will share more once I dig deeper, in the meantime hope this is helpful 🙂

β-Cell Growth and Regeneration: Replication Is Only Part of the Story

Susan Bonner-Weir, Wan-Chun Li, Limor Ouziel-Yahalom, Lili Guo, Gordon C. Weir, Arun Sharma
Diabetes Oct 2010, 59 (10) 2340-2348; DOI: 10.2337/db10-0084

One point which is very interesting… is the following comment regarding those with gastric bypass surgery… sure makes one consider the role our gut plays in health… And in this particular situation how bypassing impacts blood sugar regulation… What are your thoughts?

“Still more evidence suggesting neogenesis in humans comes from a small group patients who develop hypoglycemia after gastric bypass surgery (79). They have been found to have increased β-cell mass and impressive numbers of islet cells within the ducts (Fig. 2A), accompanied by high circulating levels GLP-1, which has been shown to stimulate neogenesis in rodents (8). From these accumulating circumstantial data, one can be more confident that neogenesis is an important process in humans”.

Are you thinking what I am thinking?  There must be something in the area which was by-passed that is having an adverse effect on insulin production and the islet cells…. So what roadblock did that bypass remove???? Hmmm… is this another connection to my post “Microbiome“?

Studies providing evidence of in vivo neogenesis

Species	Observation	References
Rat
Neonates	Islet mass growth from cytokeratin+ cells at periphery of islets; β-cell mass determinants measured, and mathematical modeling	Bouwens et al. (21); Wang et al. (89); Finegood et al. (5); Scaglia et al. (6); Bonner-Weir et al. (22)
Neonatal STZ	Appearance of small islet clusters associated with ducts	Portha and colleagues (90)
Duct ligation	Appearance of small islet clusters associated with ducts	Edstrom (50)
		Wang et al. (32)
Duct ligation + gastrin	Appearance of small islet clusters associated with ducts	Rooman et al. (52)
Pancreatectomy (90%)	New lobe formation with new islets, enhanced replication too	Bonner-Weir and colleagues (31, 38)
Zucker fatty and Zucker fatty diabetic	Increased small islet clusters associated with ducts	Pick et al. (91)
Zucker fatty rats	Increased small islets associated with ducts, increased number islets	Jetton et al. (44)
20% glucose infusion (48 h)	Increased small islet clusters associated with ducts	Jetton et al. (92)
Exendin 4	Increased hormone+ cells in ducts	Xu et al. (8)
Soybean trypsin inhibitor	Increased volume of insulin+ cells in ducts	Weaver et al. (33)
Mouse
Early postnatal	Increased number of islets from 1 week to 2 months; lineage tracing of duct-specific promoter birth to 4 weeks	Inada et al. (20); Peng et al. (26)
Ductal ligation	Ngn3+ cells in and adjacent to ducts	Xu et al. (19)
	CAIICreERT lineage tracing	Inada et al. (20)
Alloxan perfusion to part of pancreas	Replication in nonperfused part and neogenesis in perfused	Waguri et al. (34)
Alloxan + betacellulin	Increased ICC/mm2 pancreas	Yamamoto et al. (93)
Alloxan + adv-betacellulin	Significantly increased insulin+ duct cells	Tokui et al. (94)
Alloxan + EGF and gastrin	Significantly increased insulin+ duct cells	Rooman and Bouwens (95)
Pancreatectomy (60%)	Increased small clusters before β-cell proliferation; FOXM1 necessary for proliferation but for not neogenesis	Peshavaria et al. (46); Ackermann Misfeldt et al. (47)
Retroductal adv-GFP (neonatal)	GFP in islets over first 2 weeks	Peng et al. (26)
Metallothionen:TGF-α × Ins:gastrin	Insulin+ cells in metaplastic ducts, increased islets	Wang et al. (37)
RIP:interferon-ψ	Increased insulin+ clusters in ducts	Gu and Sarvetnick (36)
NeuroD-null mice	10% duct in null mice had “budding” insulin+ cells	Huang et al. (96)
Glucagon:Pax4	Reprogramming of α- to β-cells and replenishment of α from ducts	Collombat et al. (30)
Pig
Obese minipig, after 1 of year age	Increased islet numbers but same mean volume of islets	Larsen et al. (14)
Human
Autopsied pancreas, birth to age 20 years	After 12 years, most 0.5–1.2% insulin+ duct cells, some none	Meier et al. (62)
Donor pancreas, aged 7–70 years	Unchanged low level of neogenesis from 7 to 70 years	Reers et al. (65)
Autopsied, control subjects	Obese 1.2% insulin+ duct cells but lean 0.6 ± 0.2% insulin+ duct cells	Meier and colleagues (66, 74)
Autopsied, chronic pancreatitis	Significantly increased glucagon+ or insulin+ duct cells	Phillips et al. (76)
Biopsied failed pancreatic transplant	Increased insulin+ ducts in transplants with recurrent autoimmunity	Martin-Pagola et al. (78)
Pregnancy	Increased β-cells with no change in replication, cell size, or apoptosis frequency; increased insulin+ duct cells and very small islets	Butler et al. (15)

Chart is from the above study and can be found at this link.

Would love to hear your thoughts!