eLife: In-depth disclosure of the function of primary fibre on the inner walls of blood vessels may help develop new diabetes therapies

8, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal eLife, scientists from the Caroline Institute in Sweden and other institutions found that primary fibre (primary cilia, the protrusion structure of hair on endoblast cells in blood vessels) or blood supply and glucose transport to insulin-producing β cells in the islet play an important role;
Photo Source: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain When levels of glucose rise in the blood, β cells in the pancreas release insulin into the bloodstream, which then induces glucose to be ingested by a variety of tissues, including fat and muscle, and glucose and other nutrients must pass through the vascular barrier to reach the islet β cells, similarly, newly released insulin must pass through blood vessels into the bloodstream to reach the target tissue, endothellocells are present inside the blood vessels, and blood vessels on the islet can form dense mesh structures on the endothrocyte membranes, which have many small holes that facilitate the exchange of molecules between the walls of the blood vessels. In the
study, researchers investigated how the formation and function of islet blood vessels are affected by primary fibre, a small hair-like structure on β cells and β endotrine cells;
researchers analyzed mice with Barbie-2 syndrome, a disease caused by abnormal fibre hair, and when the endothell cells had abnormal fibre, the blood supplied to the islet became less effective, while the newly formed blood vessels had larger diameters and fewer holes that allowed nutrients to pass through the walls of the blood vessels. As a result, the smallest blood vessels, capillaries, are less effective in transporting glucose to β cells, and signals from the growth factor VEGF-A may be key members of the process, while endothor cells that lack functional fibre are less sensitive to VEGF-A than normal endoblast cells, which can lead to impaired signals from VEGFR2 subjects, said professor Yan Xiong, a researcher at
.
researchers say primary fibre, especially on endothell cells, may be able to regulate islet vascularization and vascular barrier function through the VEGF-A/VEGFR2 signaling path.
the formation of functional blood vessels is an important factor in transplant therapy, β cell replacement therapy can potentially treat and cure type 1 diabetes, and the formation of functional interface between β cells and blood vessels is an important step to prolong the survival of transplants and the relief of diabetes in patients.
The researchers concluded by saying that this study may improve our understanding of how primary fibre hair promotes effective vascular formation and potentially provides new therapeutic pathways to promote effective islet transplantation for diabetics, as well as the possibility of transplantation of other organs.
() Original source: Yan Xiong, M Julia Scerbo, Anett Seelig, et al. Islet vascularization is regulated by primary endothelial cilia via VEGF-A-dependent signaling, eLife (2020). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.56914。