The research on mechanism for regulating pancreatic beta cell mass through proteins

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25850090
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Food science
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: MATSUDA TOMOKAZU 神戸大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 研究員 (20570344)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 膵β細胞量 / カルノシン / C/EBPβ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

L-Carnosine (carnosine), a histidine-containing dipeptide (HCDP), is present in the brain and muscle in large amounts. Several studies have shown that carnosine plays a role in glucose metabolism and suppresses diabetic nephropathy and that carnosine increases pancreatic β-cell mass without influencing insulin resistance and insulin secretion capacity in leptin receptor knock-out (db/db) mice (Diabetes 56: 2425-2432, 2007). However, the mechanism by which carnosine increases pancreatic β-cell mass is unknown.
We generated pancreatic β-cell-specific CCAAT/enhancer binding protein β (C/EBPβ) transgenic (TG) mice and showed that pancreatic β-cell mass is inversely proportional to the C/EBPβ expression level. Pancreatic β-cell mass was decreased markedly in TG mice compared with WT mice but increased significantly after carnosine administration. It was considered that this increase in pancreatic β-cell mass might lead to improved blood glucose levels in TG mice.

Free Research Field

膵β細胞量の調節機構