ArticleHuman molecular genetics2009
Cx36 makes channels coupling human pancreatic beta-cells, and correlates with insulin expression.
Article in Human molecular genetics, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 123 citations in OpenAlex.
- Connexin 31.9 is expressed in human pancreatic endocrine beta cells, as well as in exocrine ductal epithelial and vascular endothelial cells.Bioscience reports · 2026Article
- Quantifying electrostatic control of docking and binding energetics in functional Cx36 gap junctions.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Pancreatic Islet Cell Crosstalk: Insight Into α-/β-Cell Compensatory Mechanisms.Comprehensive Physiology · 2026Article
- Uncovering the electrical synapse proteome in retinal neurons via in vivo proximity labeling.eLife · 2026Article
- Adaptive mechanisms in pancreatic islets counteract mitochondrial dysfunction in Barth syndrome.Diabetologia · 2026Article
- Heterogeneity in the coordination of delta cells with beta cells is driven by both paracrine signals and low-density Cx36 gap junctions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Review
- Scaffold-free endocrine tissue engineering: role of islet organization and implications in type 1 diabetes.BMC endocrine disorders · 2025Review
- Protector Role of Cx30.2 in Pancreatic β-Cell against Glucotoxicity-Induced Apoptosis.Biology · 2024Article
- Cx31.1 can selectively intermix with co-expressed connexins to facilitate its assembly into gap junctions.Journal of cell science · 2024Article
- Human Beta Cell Functional Adaptation and Dysfunction in Insulin Resistance and Its Reversibility.Nephron · 2024Review
- Article
- Human pluripotent stem cell-derived β cells: Truly immature islet β cells for type 1 diabetes therapy?World journal of stem cells · 2023Review
- Functional architecture of pancreatic islets identifies a population of first responder cells that drive the first-phase calcium response.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Pancreatic β-Cell Development and Regeneration.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2022Review
- Is type 2 diabetes mellitus another intercellular junction-related disorder?Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2022Article
- Modulation of Gap Junction Coupling Within the Islet of Langerhans During the Development of Type 1 Diabetes.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- The Amino Terminal Domain and Modulation of Connexin36 Gap Junction Channels by Intracellular Magnesium Ions.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Article
- The physiological role of β-cell heterogeneity in pancreatic islet function.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2022Review
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Previous studies have documented that the insulin-producing beta-cells of laboratory rodents are coupled by gap junction channels made solely of the connexin36 (Cx36) protein, and have shown that loss of this protein desynchronizes beta-cells, leading to secretory defects reminiscent of those observed in type 2 diabetes. Since human islets differ in several respects from those of laboratory rodents, we have now screened human pancreas, and islets isolated thereof, for expression of a variety of connexin genes, tested whether the cognate proteins form functional channels for islet cell exchanges, and assessed whether this expression changes with beta-cell function in islets of control and type 2 diabetics. Here, we show that (i) different connexin isoforms are differentially distributed in the exocrine and endocrine parts of the human pancreas; (ii) human islets express at the transcript level different connexin isoforms; (iii) the membrane of beta-cells harbors detectable levels of gap junctions made of Cx36; (iv) this protein is concentrated in lipid raft domains of the beta-cell membrane where it forms gap junctions; (v) Cx36 channels allow for the preferential exchange of cationic molecules between human beta-cells; (vi) the levels of Cx36 mRNA correlated with the expression of the insulin gene in the islets of both control and type 2 diabetics. The data show that Cx36 is a native protein of human pancreatic islets, which mediates the coupling of the insulin-producing beta-cells, and contributes to control beta-cell function by modulating gene expression.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.