A newly identified hormone stimulates growth of insulin-producing cells in the mouse pancreas.

Douglas Melton and his colleagues at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, identified the hormone, which they call betatrophin, by searching for genes that became more active in fat and liver tissue when insulin signalling was blocked. Injection of other mice with betatrophin resulted in an average 17-fold increase in rates of proliferation for β cells, the cells that deteriorate in some forms of diabetes. Although the hormone's mechanism of action is not yet known, the researchers did show that human livers also produce betatrophin. The hormone might one day replace insulin as a treatment for diabetes, the authors say.

Cell http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.04.008 (2013)