A surviving beta cell subpopulation enriched in patients with T1D - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #Single-Cell RNA Sequencing
- #Type 1 Diabetes
- #Beta Cell Survival
- The study uses gene regulatory network inference to examine single-cell RNA sequencing data from donors with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), those at risk, and non-diabetic donors.
- It identifies a new beta cell subtype enriched in T1D patients, characterized by transcription factors like IRF1 that promote beta cell survival.
- This beta cell subtype shows increased immunomodulatory gene expression (e.g., SOCS1/3, HLA-E) and reduced expression of autoantigens and secretory genes, indicating dedifferentiation.
- Inflammatory cytokines are implicated as drivers of this transcriptional program, based on in vitro experiments with primary human beta cells.
- A similar transcriptional program is observed in a subset of alpha cells, likely due to cell-extrinsic inflammatory cytokine signaling in vivo.
- The findings suggest that this beta cell population is resilient, offering potential targets for preventing or reversing Type 1 Diabetes.