Gene and Devel: New Discoveries! The body's biological clock may induce the regeneration β of pancreas and cells!

December 6, 2020 // -- Body-specific organs such as the skin and liver can repair themselves after injury, and cell regeneration is a special phenomenon that sustains functional proliferation to compensate for cell damage. Research has been conducted to investigate the regenerative potential of β cells, β cells in the pancreas responsible for insulin production, and when diabetes occurs in patients, the β cell population is partially destroyed, and regenerating these cells presents a huge clinical challenge for researchers.
Through a study of diabetic mice, scientists from institutions such as the University of Geneva in Switzerland recently found that the regeneration mechanism of pancreas β cells may be affected by circadian rhythm clocks, which cycle and regulate the body's metabolic function based on the 24 hours of circadian rotation, and that the researchers identified a key role of the core clock component BMAL1 in the process, according to research published in the international journal Gene. Development, the study may help researchers develop new ways to β cell regeneration.
Photo Source: Dr. Charna Dibner, a UNIGE/Dibner researcher, says compensatory proliferation is a well-known but little-known special biological mechanism in which cells actively divide and replace damaged cells, especially for pancreatic β cells, which, despite years of research, are not yet well known about the regeneration mechanisms of pancreas β cells.
this mechanism may hopefully help develop new treatments that effectively control diabetes.
To further clarify the link between the body's internal biological clock and β cell regeneration, the researchers first looked at two groups of mice with only 20% β cells left after large-scale targeting elimination, the first group of mice with abnormal circadian rhythms, compared with the control group The body's biological clock functioned perfectly normally; the researchers found that mice with abnormal biological clocks were unable to regenerate β cells and were also affected by severe diabetes, while control mice were able to regenerate β cells normally and their diabetes was effectively controlled in just a few weeks.
by measuring the number of β cells divided over a 24-hour period, the researchers found that the regeneration of β cells increased significantly at night, when the mice were most active.
mice with abnormal rhythms in the beater rhythm of the BMAL1 gene, which encodes the BMAL1 protein, is a special transcription factor known for its key role in the function of the biological clock; researcher Bart Vanderey Cken said the BMAL1 gene is important for the regeneration of β cells, and after a 24-hour large-scale transcriptional histological analysis, the researchers found that the genes responsible for regulating cell cycles and proliferation were not only upwardd, but also achieved circadian rhythms.
BMAL1 appears to be a very critical gene, however, it is not clear whether this regeneration process requires a functional biological clock itself or just BMAL1.
Finally, the researchers said, we also want to clarify the function of α cells, α cells are a cell that produces glucoglycline, which fights insulin in the body β;
original source: Volodymyr Petrenko, Miri Stolovich-Rain, Bart Vandereycken, et al. The core clock transcription factor BMAL1 drives circadian β-cell proliferation during compensatory regeneration of the endocrine pancreas, Gene and Development (2020). DOI: 10.1101/gad.343137.120。