Abstract
The endocrine cells confined in the islets of Langerhans are responsible for the maintenance of blood glucose homeostasis. In particular, beta cells produce and secrete insulin, an essential hormone regulating glucose uptake and metabolism. An insufficient amount of beta cells or defects in the molecular mechanisms leading to glucose-induced insulin secretion trigger the development of diabetes, a severe disease with epidemic spreading throughout the world. A comprehensive appreciation of the diverse adaptive procedures regulating beta cell mass and function is thus of paramount importance for the understanding of diabetes pathogenesis and for the development of effective therapeutic strategies. While significant findings were obtained by the use of islets isolated from the pancreas, in vitro studies are inherently limited since they lack the many factors influencing pancreatic islet cell function in vivo and do not allow for longitudinal monitoring of islet cell plasticity in the living organism. In this respect a number of imaging methodologies have been developed over the years for the study of islets in situ in the pancreas, a challenging task due to the relatively small size of the islets and their location, scattered throughout the organ. To increase imaging resolution and allow for longitudinal studies in individual islets, another strategy is based on the transplantation of islets into other sites that are more accessible for imaging. In this review we present the anterior chamber of the eye as a transplantation and imaging site for the study of pancreatic islet cell plasticity, and summarize the major research outcomes facilitated by this technological platform.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus is presently affecting large and growing segments of the population, especially the elderly, and represents a major socio-economic hurdle [1, 2]
Combined with longitudinal imaging of beta cell mass, these results demonstrate that alterations in beta cell function and efficacy in terms of glucose-induced insulin release prevail over the increase in beta cell mass to compensate for insulin resistance in high fat diet (HFD)-induced prediabetes [41]
The potentiating effect of light on insulin secretion from islets engrafted into the anterior chamber of the eye (ACE) [34] is indicative of connections from the grafts to the visual cortex instead, as demonstrated for other tissues engrafted into the ACE [18]
Summary
Diabetes mellitus is presently affecting large and growing segments of the population, especially the elderly, and represents a major socio-economic hurdle [1, 2]. In the following we will review findings obtained by the use of the ACE as a transplantation/ imaging site for longitudinal in vivo appreciation of pancreatic islet cell mass and function.
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