ArticleDiabetologia2015
MafA is critical for maintenance of the mature beta cell phenotype in mice.
Article in Diabetologia, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers.
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Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 129 citations in OpenAlex.
- Human β-Cell Dedifferentiation and Diabetes.Journal of diabetes · 2026Review
- Understanding development and cellular plasticity in the pancreas in health and disease.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Review
- Tomosyn-2 Regulates Postnatal β-Cell Expansion and Insulin Secretion to Maintain Glucose Homeostasis.Diabetes · 2026Article
- TBL1X/TBL1XR1 govern β-cell identity through a PAX6-containing gene regulatory network.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Postnatal epigenetic differences in calves following transient fetal infection with bovine viral diarrhea virus.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Gain of pancreatic beta cell-specific SCD1 improves glucose homeostasis by maintaining functional beta cell mass under metabolic stress.Diabetologia · 2025Article
- Why all MODY variants in transcription factor genes are dominantly inherited.Frontiers in genetics · 2025Article
- Post translational modification regulation of transcription factors governing pancreatic β-cell identity and functional mass.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- Article
- Transcriptional coactivator MED15 is required for beta cell maturation.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Causal network perturbation analysis identifies known and novel type-2 diabetes driver genes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- An Insight into Vital Genes Responsible for β-cell Formation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Article
- Editorial: Pancreatic beta-cell dedifferentiation.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Advanced therapy to cure diabetes: mission impossible is now possible?Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Maternal diet during pregnancy and adaptive changes in the maternal and fetal pancreas have implications for future metabolic health.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Review
- Beta cell dedifferentiation in type 1 diabetes: sacrificing function for survival?Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Deciphering early human pancreas development at the single-cell level.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Delineating mouse β-cell identity during lifetime and in diabetes with a single cell atlas.Nature metabolism · 2023Article
- Inferring regulators of cell identity in the human adult pancreas.NAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2023Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aims/hypothesisThe plasticity of adult somatic cells allows for their dedifferentiation or conversion to different cell types, although the relevance of this to disease remains elusive. Perturbation of beta cell identity leading to dedifferentiation may be implicated in the compromised functions of beta cells in diabetes, which is a current topic of islet research. This study aims to investigate whether or not v-Maf musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene family, protein A (MafA), a mature beta cell marker, is involved in maintaining mature beta cell phenotypes.
methodsThe fate and gene expression of beta cells were analysed in Mafa knockout (KO) mice and mouse models of diabetes in which the expression of MafA was reduced in the majority of beta cells.
resultsLoss of MafA reduced the beta to alpha cell ratio in pancreatic islets without elevating blood glucose to diabetic levels. Lineage tracing analyses showed reduced/lost expression of insulin in most beta cells, with a minority of the former beta cells converted to glucagon-expressing cells in Mafa KO mice. The upregulation of genes that are normally repressed in mature beta cells or transcription factors that are transiently expressed in endocrine progenitors was identified in Mafa KO islets as a hallmark of dedifferentiation. The compromised beta cells in db/db and multiple low-dose streptozotocin mice underwent similar dedifferentiation with expression of Mafb, which is expressed in immature beta cells. CONCLUSIONS/
interpretationThe maturation factor MafA is critical for the homeostasis of mature beta cells and regulates cell plasticity. The loss of MafA in beta cells leads to a deeper loss of cell identity, which is implicated in diabetes pathology.
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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.