Islets of Langerhans articles from across Nature Portfolio

The pancreatic islets of Langerhans play a pivotal role in regulating blood glucose homeostasis through the regulated secretion of the hormones insulin and glucagon. Here, the authors use deep tissue 3D imaging to re-construct the entire human pancreas at microscopic resolution and display previously unrecognized heterogeneities in the islet’s cellularity with pre-clinical and clinical implications.

This study reveals functional heterogeneity at the level of exocytosis among β cells and identifies a subpopulation of β cells that make a disproportionally large contribution to insulin release from mouse islets.

Integration of multiomics data with functional analysis of pancreatic tissues from individuals with early-stage type 2 diabetes indicates that the genetic risk converges on RFX6, which regulates chromatin architecture at multiple risk loci.

β-cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes is associated with pathological aggregates of IAPP that accumulate in pancreatic islets. Here, the authors describe a novel antibody cloned from healthy elderly donors that selectively targets IAPP oligomers and protects from IAPP toxicity.

In 1923, Kimball and Murlin published work that identified a substance in pancreatic extracts that caused hyperglycaemia, which they named glucagon. A century later, we now know the importance of this hormone in human physiology and disease, and drugs targeting the glucagon receptor family have been developed to treat metabolic diseases.