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Query: UMLS:C0011854 (type 1 diabetes)
 20,749 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Several lines of evidence suggest that the aetio-pathogenesis of the common form of type 2 diabetes mellitus and its intrinsically related features of impaired insulin secretion and decreased insulin sensitivity (insulin resistance) includes a strong genetic component. At present, however, little is known about the nature of this genetic component although familial clustering of the disease has been described for decades. Major break-throughs in the genetic sciences of type 2 diabetes have been identifications of insulin receptor gene mutations in syndromes of severe insulin resistance and mutations in pancreatic beta-cell genes in the monogenic sub-group of type 2 diabetes: maturity-onset-diabetes-of-the-young, MODY. Pathophysiological models of insulin resistance in skeletal muscles and impaired glucose-induced insulin secretion in the beta-cells have formed a basis for selecting candidate genes with potential influence on the development of type 2 diabetes ("diabetogenes"). This process of selecting and analyzing genes for mutations that potentially associate with either type 2 diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance or impaired insulin secretion is often described as the "candidate gene approach". The studies reported in this thesis are excerpts from an extensive strategy of genetically dissecting (mutation analysis) in: 1) patients with the common form of late-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus the pathways that transduce the insulin signals from the plasma membrane to the activation of glycogen synthesis in skeletal muscle, and in 2) patients with either late-onset type diabetes or MODY the pathways involved in normal beta-cell development and beta-cell function (insulin secretion). Twelve of the genes that encode proteins in the insulin-signalling pathway from the insulin receptor through the phosphatidylinositide-regulated kinases down to the complex of phosphatases that regulate glycogen synthesis in skeletal muscle were analyzed. We could not confirm that a Val985Met variant in the insulin receptor is associated with type 2 diabetes or that the Met326Val of the p85 alpha regulatory subunit of the phosphoinositide-3 kinase is associated with insulin resistance. We found no coding mutations (missense) in the insulin signalling protein kinases but we confirmed that the 5 bp deletion (PP1ARE) in the 3'-end of the PPP1R3 gene that encodes the glycogen-associated regulatory subunit of protein phosphatase-1 (PP1G) is associated with insulin resistance estimated as insulin mediated glucose uptake. In contrast to protein kinases in skeletal muscles the genes encoding beta-cell transcription factors (IPF-1, NeuroD1/BETA2, and Neurogenin 3) are polymorphic but we could not confirm that the Asp76Asn of IPF-1 is a susceptibility gene for late-onset type 2 diabetes. On the other hand we confirmed that the Ala45Thr variant in NeuroD1/BETA2 may represent a susceptibility gene for type 1 diabetes but none of these genes revealed any MODY-specific mutations. Also the gene encoding the ATP-regulatable potassium channels of the beta-cell (Kir6.2) is polymorphic but none of these polymorphisms associated with changes in glucose-induced insulin secretion. Reviewed in context of the existing data our studies support the candidate gene approach as a feasible method for directly either identifying or excluding any gene as a diabetes-susceptibility gene ("diabetogene").
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PMID:Candidate genes and late-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus. Susceptibility genes or common polymorphisms? 1469 50

The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor Neurogenin 3 (NGN3) controls endocrine cell fate specification in uncommitted pancreatic progenitor cells. Ngn3-deficient mice do not develop any islet cells and are diabetic. All the major islet cell types, including insulin-producing beta-cells, derive from Ngn3-positive endocrine progenitor cells. Therefore, the characterization of this population of immature cells is of particular interest for the development of novel strategies for cell replacement therapies in type 1 diabetes. To explore further the biology of islet progenitor cells we have generated a mouse in which Ngn3-expressing cells are labeled with the enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) using a knock-add-on strategy. In this approach, the EYFP cDNA is introduced into the 3'-untranslated region of the proendocrine transcription factor, Neurogenin 3, without deleting any endogenous coding or regulatory sequences. In Ngn3(EYFP/+) and Ngn3(EYFP/EYFP) mice, the EYFP protein is targeted to Ngn3-expressing progenitors in the developing pancreas, and islets develop normally. Islet progenitors can be purified from whole embryonic pancreas by fluorescence-activated cell sorting from Ngn3(EYFP/+) mice and their development can be monitored in real time in pancreas explant cultures. These experiments showed that endocrine progenitors can form de novo and expand, in vitro, in the absence of signals from the surrounding mesenchyme, suggesting that endocrine commitment is a default pathway. The Ngn3(EYFP) mice represent a valuable tool to study islet cell development and neogenesis in normal and diabetic animals as well as for the determination of the conditions to generate beta-cells in vitro.
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PMID:Pancreatic islet progenitor cells in neurogenin 3-yellow fluorescent protein knock-add-on mice. 1529 5

Stem cell technologies hold great potential for the treatment of type 1 diabetes, provided that functional transplantable beta-cells can be selectively generated in an efficient manner. Such a process should recapitulate, at least to a certain extent, the embryonic development of beta-cells in vitro. However, progress at identifying the transcription factors involved in beta-cell development has not been accompanied by a parallel success at unraveling the pattern of their instructive extracellular signals. Here we present proof of principle of a novel approach to circumvent this problem, based on the use of the HIV/TAT protein transduction domain. Neurogenin 3 (ngn3), a factor whose expression is essential for pancreatic endocrine differentiation, was fused to the TAT domain. Administration of TAT/ngn3 to cultured pancreatic explants results in efficient uptake, nuclear translocation, and stimulation of downstream reporter and endogenous genes. Consistent with the predicted activity of the protein, e9.5 and e13.5 mouse pancreatic explants cultured in the presence of TAT/ngn3 show an increased level of endocrine differentiation compared with control samples. Our results raise the possibility of sequentially specifying stem/progenitor cells toward the beta-cell lineage, by using the appropriate sequence and combination of TAT-fused transcription factors.
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PMID:TAT-mediated neurogenin 3 protein transduction stimulates pancreatic endocrine differentiation in vitro. 1573 48