Title:
non-invasive, in vivo imaging of pancreatic β-cells

Nobuya Inagaki
Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Nutrition, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University

Abstract:
　In the East Asia including Japan, the number of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is rapidly increasing. There seems to be ethnic difference in insulin secretion and insulin resistance in T2DM. Indeed, mean body mass index (BMI) in Japanese T2DM patients is much lower than that in Caucasian T2DM patients. However, since insulin secretory capacity is much lower in Japanese than in Caucasian, Japanese subjects are vulnerable to T2DM by environmental factors such as western food and sedentary life which increase insulin resistance.
　One of the difficulties in the treatment of T2DM is that it is a progressive disease. One of the reasons for progression is thought to be the decrease in pancreatic β-cell mass during the progression of T2DM. To determine how much loss of β-cell mass is involved in the progression of diabetes, a technique for non-invasive measurement of β-cell mass in vivo is necessary. If non-invasive, in vivo imaging of pancreatic β-cell is realized, we will be able to dissect diabetes from the view point of function and mass of β-cells, leading to better understanding of the mechanism of diabetes progression, evaluation of drug effect, and the development of novel strategies for the treatment of diabetes. I would like to introduce the recent progress in our research on a non-invasive method to investigate pancreatic β-cell mass.