报告题目：Impact of microRNAs on Diabetes and Obesity

报 告 人：Prof. Tang, Xiaoqing

主 持 人：晏军 研究员

报告时间：2024年6月6日上午 9:00-10:00

报告地点：生命科学学院534小会议室

报告人简介：

Dr. Xiaoqing Tang is a professor at Michigan Technological University (MTU). She received her PhD from Weizmann Institute of Sciences, Israel, and did postdoctoral research Univ. of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA. Since joining MTU in 2011 as an assistant professor, Dr. Tang has focused on investigating microRNAs' functions in pancreatic β-cells and their role in the development of diabetes. Her research has been continuously funded by NIH.

She has served on editorial boards for journals and has reviewed grants for NIH and other organizations.

报告简介：

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that causes hyperglycemia in patients. Loss of functional pancreatic beta-cells is a hallmark of progression from insulin resistance to overt diabetes. New evidence indicated altered identity of β-cells due to beta-cell dedifferentiation is believed to be a new mechanism of β-cell loss in diabetes. However, the mechanism of β-cell dedifferentiation remains to be investigated.  microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate β-cell function and survival by inhibiting specific target gene expression. We discovered that miR-483 is highly expressed in β-cells, but much less in α-cells. Mice with β-cell specific deletion of miR-483 exhibited diet-induced hyperglycemia and reduced glucose tolerance without changing in β-cell mass. Notably,  miR-483 deletion increases expression of a β-cell disallowed gene ALDH1A3, pointing to a direction linking dysregulation of microRNAs with β-cell dedifferentiation. The results obtained from this study will help understand the underlying mechanisms of β-cell dedifferentiation and guide therapeutical treatments for diabetes.