Large-scale electron microscopy database for human type 1 diabetes.
Pascal de BoerNicole M PirozziAnouk H G WoltersJeroen KuipersIrina KusmartsevaMark A AtkinsonMartha Campbell-ThompsonBen N G GiepmansPublished in: Nature communications (2020)
Autoimmune β-cell destruction leads to type 1 diabetes, but the pathophysiological mechanisms remain unclear. To help address this void, we created an open-access online repository, unprecedented in its size, composed of large-scale electron microscopy images ('nanotomy') of human pancreas tissue obtained from the Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes (nPOD; www.nanotomy.org). Nanotomy allows analyses of complete donor islets with up to macromolecular resolution. Anomalies we found in type 1 diabetes included (i) an increase of 'intermediate cells' containing granules resembling those of exocrine zymogen and endocrine hormone secreting cells; and (ii) elevated presence of innate immune cells. These are our first results of mining the database and support recent findings that suggest that type 1 diabetes includes abnormalities in the exocrine pancreas that may induce endocrine cellular stress as a trigger for autoimmunity.
Keyphrases
- type diabetes
- electron microscopy
- glycemic control
- induced apoptosis
- endothelial cells
- cardiovascular disease
- cell cycle arrest
- insulin resistance
- immune response
- induced pluripotent stem cells
- multiple sclerosis
- healthcare
- social media
- metabolic syndrome
- stem cells
- cell therapy
- signaling pathway
- deep learning
- cell death
- network analysis
- health information
- kidney transplantation
- pi k akt
- heat stress