To Study the Impact of Cell Cycle Arrest on the Mass and Function of Pancreatic Islet Beta Cell during Adaptation

Adaptation of pancreatic beta cells will occur when the insulin demanding increases during certain situation, such as obesity and pregnancy. It is thought that replication of the existing beta cells contributes to the increase of beta cell mass and function during adaptation, i.e. beta cells should enter cell cycle and progress completely to increase beta cell number. In recent years, many novel anti-cancer drugs interfere cell cycle progression and enhance apoptosis of the affected malignant cells, e.g., gossypin induces U251 cells (human malignant glioma) to arrest at G2/M phase which inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis; phyllanthus spp induces MeWo cells (skin melanoma) arrest at S-phase and inhibits cell replication. When more and more novel anti-cancer drugs that work on arresting cell cycle progression are chosen to treat cancer clinically, the exact influence of such anti-cancer drugs on islet mass and function especially during adaptation should be evaluated. We propose this two-years research plan to investigate the influence of cell cycle arrest on the function and mass of pancreatic islet beta cells during adaptation and to find out ways to manage the effect of cell cycle arrest on islets mass and function.

Project ID:PC10207-0331
External Project ID:NSC102-2314-B182-020