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Approaches for Imaging Pancreatic Islets: Recent Advances and Future Prospects

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Islets of Langerhans

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Abstract

Many questions about the natural history of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes remain unanswered, mostly because our present knowledge is derived from either in vitro studies or quite indirect in vivo measurements. Methods to noninvasively and repeatedly evaluate the mass and function of β-cells in vivo, two parameters that are central to the study of diabetes, are expected to change our understanding of this disease. However, and in spite of remarkable progress in many imaging techniques, no method yet fulfills the minimal requirements required for such an imaging, because of a combination of anatomical, biological, and technological problems. Here, we briefly review the major optical methods, which have been applied in imaging of the pancreatic β-cells, as well as the nonoptical methods, which may become relevant for the clinical assessment of islets, with particular attention to the individual advantages and limits of each approach.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation (310000-109402, CR32I3_129987), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (40-2011-11, 99-2012-775), the European Union (BETAIMAGE 222980, IMIDIA 155055, BETATRAIN 289932), the Fondation Romande pour le Diabète, and the Boninchi Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Radiology, Geneva University Hospital, Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4, 1211, Genèva, Switzerland

    Xavier Montet

  2. Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism, Geneva University, Genèva, Switzerland

    Smaragda Lamprianou, Laurent Vinet, Paolo Meda & Alfredo Fort

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  1. Xavier Montet
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Correspondence to Xavier Montet .

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  1. Department of Clinical Sciences and Education, Sodersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Md. Shahidul Islam

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Montet, X., Lamprianou, S., Vinet, L., Meda, P., Fort, A. (2015). Approaches for Imaging Pancreatic Islets: Recent Advances and Future Prospects. In: Islam, M. (eds) Islets of Langerhans. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6686-0_39

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