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Diabetes

A signal for β-cell failure

Nature volume 391, pages 846–847 (1998)Cite this article

Human type 2 diabetes is almost always accompanied by defects in both the responsiveness to insulin (which is commonly called insulin resistance) and the secretion of insulin. The result is hyperglycaemia — an excess of glucose in the bloodstream. Severe insulin resistance alone does not usually cause sustained hyperglycaemia, because the pancreatic β-cells can secrete much more insulin than is normally required. Moreover, in the face of insulin resistance, the β-cells have a substantial compensatory reserve. Although insulin resistance increases with the development of obesity and physical deconditioning, hyperglycaemia results mainly when the compensatory overproduction of insulin fails1.

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Figure 1: Signal transduction through IRS-2 in the β-cell and in insulin-sensitive tissues.

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  1. the Department of Medicine, and the Department of Molecular Biology, Diabetes Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 50 Blossom Street, Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA

    Joseph Avruch

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  1. Joseph Avruch
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Avruch, J. A signal for β-cell failure. Nature 391, 846–847 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/35998

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