Abstract
The pancreatic β-cell-enriched C1/RIPE3b1 binding factor was isolated as the Mafa transcription factor, belonging to the large Maf family known to regulate cellular differentiation in diverse tissues. Strikingly, Mafa is expressed only in the insulin-producing cell population during pancreas development, which is destined to populate the islet, and is an expression pattern not found for any other characterized transcription factor associated with islet cell activity. As expected, Mafa plays a critical role in pancreatic β-cell function, especially in insulin biosynthesis and secretion. In this review, I describe the importance of Mafa in β-cell function, its pathophysiological significance in diabetes, and its usefulness for generating insulin-producing cells from non-β cells.
Published Version
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