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Diabetes

Controlling the identity of the adult pancreatic β cell

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 13, pages 129–130 (2017)Cite this article

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Understanding how pancreatic β cells achieve and maintain functional identity as insulin-secreting cells is a major roadblock in our understanding of the aetiology of diabetes mellitus. Three new papers reveal the roles, in the adult β cell, of four transcription factors that are crucial for reprogramming a multipotent endocrine progenitor.

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Figure 1: Regulation of β cell identity in health and in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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Acknowledgements

The author is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (WT098424AIA), MRC Programmes (MR/J0003042/1, MR/L020149/1) and Experimental Challenge Grant (DIVA, MR/L02036X/1), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/J015873/1), MRC (MR/N00275X/1), Diabetes UK (BDA/11/0004210, BDA/15/0005275, BDA 16/0005485), Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) grants and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.

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  1. Division of Diabetes, Section of Cell Biology and Functional Genomics, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK

    Guy A. Rutter

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  1. Guy A. Rutter
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Correspondence to Guy A. Rutter.

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The author declares no competing financial interests.

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Rutter, G. Controlling the identity of the adult pancreatic β cell. Nat Rev Endocrinol 13, 129–130 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2017.1

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