doi:10.1155/2012/925143 Review Article Chemical Methods to Induce Beta-Cell Proliferation

License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Pancreatic beta-cell regeneration, for example, by inducing proliferation, remains an important goal in developing effective treatments for diabetes. However, beta cells have mainly been considered quiescent. This “static ” view has recently been challenged by observations of relevant physiological conditions in which metabolic stress is compensated by an increase in beta-cell mass. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlining these process could open the possibility of developing novel small molecules to increase beta-cell mass. Several cellular cell-cycle and signaling proteins provide attractive targets for high throughput screening, and recent advances in cell culture have enabled phenotypic screening for small molecule-induced beta-cell proliferation. We present here an overview of the current trends involving small-molecule approaches to induce beta-cell regeneration by proliferation. 1