Delta-cell contribution to type 2 diabetes

Investigating the somatostatin-producing delta-cell contribution to T2D

Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by persistent high blood glucose levels caused by the inability of the body to produce or use sufficient insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by the beta-cells located in the pancreatic islets.

Besides beta-cells the pancreatic islets include also other endocrine cell types, which contribute to blood glucose regulation. We propose here to characterize the contribution of one such population, the somatostatin-producing delta-cells, to the most prevalent diabetes type (type 2 diabetes – T2D). For this, we plan to use patient samples and mouse models of T2D coupled with complex genetic ablation systems and classical and high throughput readout methods.

Uncovering the causal relationship between the somatostatin-producing delta cells and T2D will identify novel druggable targets thus potentially stemming new therapeutic schemes aimed at tunning patients’ delta-cell activity and improving glycemic control.