Section of Cell Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2013 Jun;41(3):797-801. doi: 10.1042/BST20120355.
The progression of Type 2 diabetes is accompanied by diminishing islet β-cell mass and function. It has been proposed that β-cells are lost not only through apoptosis, but also by dedifferentiating into progenitor-like cells. There is therefore much interest in the mechanisms which define and maintain β-cell identity. The advent of genome-wide analyses of chromatin modifications has highlighted the role of epigenetic factors in determining cell identity. There is also evidence from both human populations and animal models for an epigenetic component in susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms responsible for defining the epigenetic landscape in individual cell types are poorly understood, but there is growing evidence of a role for lncRNAs (long non-coding RNAs) in this process. In the present paper, we discuss some of the mechanisms through which lncRNAs may contribute to β-cell identity and Type 2 diabetes risk.
2 型糖尿病的进展伴随着胰岛 β 细胞数量和功能的减少。有人提出，β 细胞不仅通过细胞凋亡丢失，还通过去分化为祖细胞样细胞丢失。因此，人们对定义和维持 β 细胞特性的机制非常感兴趣。全基因组染色质修饰分析的出现突出了表观遗传因素在决定细胞特性中的作用。来自人类群体和动物模型的证据也表明，表观遗传因素在 2 型糖尿病易感性中起作用。负责定义单个细胞类型表观遗传景观的机制了解甚少，但越来越多的证据表明长非编码 RNA（lncRNAs）在这一过程中发挥作用。在本文中，我们讨论了 lncRNAs 可能有助于 β 细胞特性和 2 型糖尿病风险的一些机制。
