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November 2014: Comment in Nature Reviews Endocrinology
David Holmes wrote a very nice comment about our work recently published in Nature.
October 2014: My paper out in Nature!
Total or near-total loss of insulin-producing β-cells occurs in type 1 diabetes. Restoration of insulin production in type 1 diabetes is thus a major medical challenge. We previously observed in mice in which β-cells are completely ablated that the pancreas reconstitutes new insulin-producing cells in the absence of autoimmunity. The process involves the contribution of islet non-β-cells; specifically, glucagon-producing α-cells begin producing insulin by a process of reprogramming (transdifferentiation) without proliferation. Here we show the influence of age on β-cell reconstitution from heterologous islet cells after near-total β-cell loss in mice. We found that senescence does not alter α-cell plasticity: α-cells can reprogram to produce insulin from puberty through to adulthood, and also in aged individuals, even a long time after β-cell loss. In contrast, before puberty there is no detectable α-cell conversion, although β-cell reconstitution after injury is more efficient, always leading to diabetes recovery. This process occurs through a newly discovered mechanism: the spontaneous en masse reprogramming of somatostatin-producing δ-cells. The juveniles display ‘somatostatin-to-insulin’ δ-cell conversion, involving dedifferentiation, proliferation and re-expression of islet developmental regulators. This juvenile adaptability relies, at least in part, upon the combined action of FoxO1 and downstream effectors. Restoration of insulin producing-cells from non-β-cell origins is thus enabled throughout life via δ- or α-cell spontaneous reprogramming. A landscape with multiple intra-islet cell interconversion events is emerging, offering new perspectives for therapy.
September 2014: Islet Study Group Meeting 2014
This year the meeting takes place in Switzerland at the Olympic Museum. I’m presenting this poster: “The influence of ageing on beta cell regeneration after near total beta cell”
June 2014: 10th Swiss Stem Cells Meeting
I was selected for a short talk and I’m discussing about “Diabetes recovery by islet cell-type interconversion in young mice“.
May 2014: Beta cells in Health and Disease
Another talk for a small meeting in Turkey: “Diabetes recovery by age-dependent conversion of pancreatic delta or alpha cells into insulin producers”
May 2014: BCBC Investigator Retreat
This is the last meeting of BCBC, and for the second time I was invited to give a small talk on my work on beta cell regeneration: “Diabetes recovery by islet cell-type interconversion in young mice“.