📚 Or check out our new research article, recently released in Science Advances 🔗: doi.org/10.1126/scia...

@exeter.ac.uk

Take-home message: We propose that, particularly in young children, type 1 diabetes may be a disease of beta cell loss (driven by more efficient immune-mediated destruction), coupled with a net initial beta cell deficit, resulting from a failure to establish larger islets in sufficient quantities.

Extra-islet single and small clusters of beta cells are virtually absent in individuals with type 1 diabetes and islets that retain beta cells are larger

Development of type 1 diabetes at an early age is associated with fewer large islets in adulthood

We show:
A significant proportion of total pancreatic endocrine area consists of single and small clusters of beta cells which reside outside of typical islet structures

There is a shift towards larger islets with age, with the most pronounced changes occurring in the first few years of life

www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Thanks to funders:
@breakthrought1duk.bsky.social ky.social
@diabetesuk.bsky.social sky.social
@stevemorganfdn.bsky.social dn.bsky.social

Kudos to the amazing team, especially:
@katymurrall.bsky.social
@teifionluckett.bsky.social
@clekka.bsky.social