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View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/press/18028.pdf

Neurodegeneration and diabetes come together

Diabetes is caused by an absolute or relative deficiency of insulin-producing b cells. In order to elucidate the underlying mechanisms leading to the development of diabetes in humans, Michael Ristow and colleagues from the German Institute of Human Nutrition created a beta cellspecific knockout of the frataxin gene in mice. Reduced expression of frataxin is known to cause an autosomal recessively inherited disease, Friedreich ataxia, in humans. Mice were born healthy, but subsequently developed impaired glucose tolerance progressing to overt diabetes mellitus. The secretory defect was caused by reduced beta cell mass due to both decreased cell growth and an increase in programmed cell death, which was caused by the overproduction of toxic oxygen species in the absence of frataxin. These observations might provide insight into the deterioration of beta cell function observed in human type 2 diabetes.

TITLE: Frataxin deficiency in pancreatic islets causes diabetes due to loss of beta cell mass

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Michael Ristow
Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Phone: 49-33200-88-787
Fax: 49-33200-88-777
E-mail: mristow@mristow.org

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/press/18107.pdf

Integrin-linked kinase mediates kidney fibrosis

Emerging evidence suggests that during certain disease states, epithelial cells within the kidney are capable of undergoing epithelial to mesenchymal transition
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Contact: Brooke Grindlinger
science_editor@the-jci.org
212-342-9006
Journal of Clinical Investigation
15-Aug-2003