Heimberg group

Beta cell neogenesis and diabetes

A decreased beta cell mass or the incapability of the beta cell mass to compensate for increased insulin needs, results in an absolute (type I) or relative (type II) deficiency of insulin defining type I and type II diabetes, respectively. Our research group aims to compensate the reduced beta cell mass in diabetes by transplantation or in situ differentiation and expansion of beta and pre-beta cells. We therefore investigate mechanisms to generate new, fully functional beta cells by differentiation of endogenous progenitor/stem cells and regeneration of the beta cell mass.
Our research is performed in close collaboration with our research group in the Diabetes Research Center-VUB (http://bene.vub.ac.be/) and within the framework of the JDRF Center for Beta Cell Therapy in Diabetes and the Beta Cell Biology Consortium

About the research

Key publications
Collombat, P., Xu, X., Ravassard, P., Sosa-Pineda, B., Dussaud, S., Billestrup, N., Madsen, O., Serup, P., Heimberg, H., Mansouri, A. (2009) The misexpression of Pax4 in the mouse pancreas converts progenitor cells into alpha- and subsequently beta-cells. Cell 138: 449-462.

Heimberg, H. (2008) Boosting Beta Cell Numbers. N. Engl. J. Med. 359: 2723-2724.

Xu, X., D'Hoker, J., Stangé, G., Bonné, S., De Leu, N., Xiao, X., Van de Casteele, M., Mellitzer, G., Ling, Z., Pipeleers, D,. Bouwens, L., Scharfmann, R., Gradwohl, G., Heimberg, H. (2008) Beta cells can be generated from endogenous progenitors in injured adult mouse pancreas. Cell 132: 197-207.

Mellitzer, G., Bonné, S., Luco, R.F., Van De Casteele, M., Lenne-Samuel, N., Collombat, P., Mansouri, A., Lee, J., Lan, M., Pipeleers, D., Nielsen, F.C., Ferrer, J., Gradwohl, G., Heimberg, H. (2006) IA1 is NGN3-dependent and essential for differentiation of the endocrine pancreas. EMBO J. 25: 1344-1352.

Heremans, Y., Van De Casteele, M., in't Veld, P., Gradwohl, G., Serup, P., Madsen, O., Pipeleers, D., Heimberg, H. (2002) Recapitulation of embryonic neuroendocrine differentiation in adult human pancreatic duct cells expressing neurogenin 3. J. Cell Biol. 159: 303-312

Publication list