Estrogens protect pancreatic beta-cells from apoptosis and prevent insulin-deficient diabetes mellitus in mice.

ABSTRACT: In diabetes, the death of insulin-producing beta-cells by apoptosis leads to insulin deficiency. The lower prevalence of diabetes in females suggests that female sex steroids protect from beta-cell injury. Consistent with this hypothesis, 17beta-estradiol (estradiol) manifests antidiabetic actions in humans and rodents. In addition, estradiol has antiapoptotic actions in cells that are mediated by the estrogen receptor-a (ERalpha), raising the prospect that estradiol antidiabetic function may be due, in part, to a protection of beta-cell apoptosis via ERalpha. To address this question, we have used mice that were rendered estradiol-deficient or estradiol-resistant by targeted disruption of aromatase (ArKO) or ERalpha (alphaERKO) respectively. We show here that in both genders, ArKO(-/-) mi

SUBMITTER: Le May C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1482595 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature