Betatrophin versus bitter-trophin and the elephant in the room: time for a new normal in

The purpose of studying pancreatic b-cells in nonhuman species is to learn how to protect and regenerate the supply of residual endogenous b-cells in the face of the immunologic attack of type 1 diabetes, and the glucolipo-toxic, inflammatory, endoplasmic reticulum- and oxida-tive stress–inducing environment of type 2 diabetes. b-Cell replication was unimaginable 20 years ago, when many believed that b-cells were irrevocably, terminally differentiated or senescent, and could never reenter the cell cycle. Enormous progress has been made over the past two decades. There are now many, many agonists that induce b-cells to replicate and expand. The agonists have included nutrients, growth factors, intracellular sig-naling molecules, small molecules discovered in high-throughput screens, proteins discovered in similar screens