Islet cell exocytosis

Type-2 diabetes is a complex disease dependent on both genetic background and life-style factors. The disease is associated with increase in blood glucose level which is due to reduced insulin secretion from the pancreatic β-cell and impaired insulin action at the target cells.  Diabetes is also associated with a perturbed glucagon secretion. The main focus of our research is to investigate the regulation of insulin and glucagon secretion with a specific interest in how miRNAs are involved in this regulation. Micro-RNAs (miRNA; 19-23 nt) are a novel class of small endogenous non-coding RNAs. They repress expression of protein-coding genes by binding to the 3’ untranslated region (UTR) through imprecise base-pairing and they thereby arrest the translation without mRNA degradation.

To functionally investigate exocytosis in these cells we utilize the patch-clamp technique. Exocytosis is measured as an increase in membrane capacitance.  The patch-clamp technique has the advantage that it is possible to measure on single cells with a high temporal resolution. We also combine these techniques with live confocal microscopy, hormone measurements utilizing RIA as well as necessary molecular biology techniques and protein chemistry.