Speaker: Rohit N

							Speaker: Rohit N. Kulkarni MD PhD
Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School


Title: Insulin Signaling and beta-cell Proliferation


Abstract:
Evidence gathered by multiple laboratories over the last few years indicates that insulin/IGF-I
signaling, while not being critical for early development of islet/-cell growth, is important for
maintenance of adult -cell mass. Our laboratory has created and characterized several compound
knockout mouse models to directly evaluate the role(s) of insulin and IGF-1 receptors in maintaining
-cell mass, -cell replication and in the islet hyperplastic response to insulin resistance. Data on -
cell-specific and pancreas-specific insulin and IGF-1 receptor double knockouts created using RIP-
Cre or PDX-1-Cre respectively will be presented to demonstrate effects of functional loss of both
insulin and IGF-1 receptors on early development of islets/-cells. Furthermore, experiments will be
discussed regarding the critical role of insulin signaling for islet hyperplastic response to insulin
resistance.