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Karampelias C, Rezanejad H, Rosko M, Duan L, Lu J, Pazzagli L, Bertolino P, Cesta CE, Liu X, Korbutt GS, Andersson O
Nat Commun 12 (1) 3362 [2021-06-07; online 2021-06-07]
Diabetes can be caused by an insufficiency in β-cell mass. Here, we performed a genetic screen in a zebrafish model of β-cell loss to identify pathways promoting β-cell regeneration. We found that both folate receptor 1 (folr1) overexpression and treatment with folinic acid, stimulated β-cell differentiation in zebrafish. Treatment with folinic acid also stimulated β-cell differentiation in cultures of neonatal pig islets, showing that the effect could be translated to a mammalian system. In both zebrafish and neonatal pig islets, the increased β-cell differentiation originated from ductal cells. Mechanistically, comparative metabolomic analysis of zebrafish with/without β-cell ablation and with/without folinic acid treatment indicated β-cell regeneration could be attributed to changes in the pyrimidine, carnitine, and serine pathways. Overall, our results suggest evolutionarily conserved and previously unknown roles for folic acid and one-carbon metabolism in the generation of β-cells.
Bioinformatics Support for Computational Resources [Service]
NGI Stockholm (Genomics Applications) [Service]
NGI Stockholm (Genomics Production) [Service]
National Genomics Infrastructure [Service]
PubMed 34099692
DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-23673-0
Crossref 10.1038/s41467-021-23673-0
pii: 10.1038/s41467-021-23673-0
pmc: PMC8184927