Bulking Up on Beta Cells

<p id="p002">Finding a way to boost the numbers of pancreatic insulin-secreting beta cells is a major goal of diabetes research. A step toward this goal is the recent identification of a hormone secreted by the liver and by white fat that induces the beta cell to proliferate. <p id="p003">Current diabetes therapies provide suboptimal glycemic control, fueling efforts to develop strategies to restore the functional mass of insulin-secreting beta cells in the pancreases of patients with diabetes. This feat can be accomplished either by halting or slowing the death of beta cells or by increasing their proliferation. The adaptive proliferation of adult beta cells is possible in response to increased insulin resistance (e.g., during pregnancy(1) or as a consequence of inhibiting insulin signaling in the liver(2)), but the proliferative response is modest. <p id="p004">Now, Yi et al.(3) describe a hormone that increases beta-cell proliferation by a factor far greater ...