Regulation of pancreatic β-cell growth and survival by the serine/threonine protein kinase Akt1/PKBα

RL Tuttle, NS Gill, W Pugh, JP Lee, B Koeberlein… - Nature medicine, 2001 - nature.com
RL Tuttle, NS Gill, W Pugh, JP Lee, B Koeberlein, EE Furth, KS Polonsky, A Naji…
Nature medicine, 2001nature.com
The physiological performance of an organ depends on an interplay between changes in
cellular function and organ size, determined by cell growth, proliferation and death.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the endocrine pancreas, where disturbances in
function or mass result in severe disease. Recently, the insulin signal-transduction pathway
has been implicated in both the regulation of hormone secretion from β cells in mammals as
well as the determination of cell and organ size in Drosophila melanogaster. A prominent …
Abstract
The physiological performance of an organ depends on an interplay between changes in cellular function and organ size, determined by cell growth, proliferation and death. Nowhere is this more evident than in the endocrine pancreas, where disturbances in function or mass result in severe disease. Recently, the insulin signal-transduction pathway has been implicated in both the regulation of hormone secretion from β cells in mammals as well as the determination of cell and organ size in Drosophila melanogaster. A prominent mediator of the actions of insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is the 3′-phosphoinositide–dependent protein kinase Akt, also known as protein kinase B (PKB). Here we report that overexpression of active Akt1 in the mouse β cell substantially affects compartment size and function. There was a significant increase in both β-cell size and total islet mass, accompanied by improved glucose tolerance and complete resistance to experimental diabetes.
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