The adult pancreas is capable of limited regeneration after injury but has no defined stem cell population. The cell types and molecular signals that govern the production of new pancreatic tissue are not well understood. Here, we show that inactivation of the SCF-type E3 ubiquitin ligase substrate recognition component Fbw7 induces pancreatic ductal cells to reprogram into α, δ, and β cells. L...

Background: Studies suggest that herbal remedies may serve as functional anti-diabetic agents. This study investigated the therapeutic role of Calotropis procera aqueous-methanol root extract in hyperglycaemic and hepatopathy disorders in Wistar rats after exposure to alloxan. This compound destroys pancreatic β-cells and produce diabetes in experimental animals. Methods: Spectrophotometric m...

One of the key factors responsible for the development of type 2 diabetes is the loss of functional pancreatic β cells. This occurs due to a chronic exposure to a high fatty acid environment. ER stress is caused by an accumulation of irreversible misfold or unfold protein: these trigger the death of functional pancreatic β cells. PPARδ is an orphan nuclear receptor. It plays a pivotal role in r...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PanCa) is an extremely lethal disease characterized by mutations of p53 in up to 70% of cases. Our previous studies have confirmed that hyperglycemia may be the first clinical manifestation for the early diagnosis of PanCa. In this article, we showed that targeted knockdown of TG2 or p53 in tumor cells led to decreased cell survival in response to glucose depri...

mTOR has been implicated in survival signals for many human cancers. Rapamycin and TGF-β synergistically induce G1 cell-cycle arrest in several cell lines with intact TGF-β signaling pathway, which protects cells from the apoptotic effects of rapamycin during S-phase of the cell cycle. Thus, rapamycin is cytostatic in the presence of serum/TGF-β and cytotoxic in the absence of serum. However, i...

The novel sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor empagliflozin has recently been reported to improve glycemic control in streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetic rats in an insulin-independent manner, via an increase in urinary glucose output. We investigated the potential of empagliflozin to recover insulin pathways in type 1 diabetes by improving pancreatic β-cell mass. Blood glucose...

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease caused by loss of pancreatic β cells via apoptosis while neighboring α cells are preserved. Viral infections by coxsackieviruses (CVB) may contribute to trigger autoimmunity in T1D. Cellular permissiveness to viral infection is modulated by innate antiviral responses, which vary among different cell types. We presently describe that global gene exp...