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¹ Departments of Medicine,
² Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and
³ Program in Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2220 Pierce Avenue 746 PRB, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, USA

(Requests for offprints should be addressed to M Gannon; Email: maureen.gannon{at}vanderbilt.edu)

Pancreatic ß-cells are responsible for producing all of the insulin required by an organism to maintain glucose homeostasis. Defects in development, maintenance, or expansion of ß-cell mass can result in impaired glucose metabolism and diabetes. Thus, identifying the molecular regulators of these processes may provide new therapeutic targets for diabetes. Additionally, understanding the processes of ß-cell differentiation and proliferation may allow for in vitro cultivation of ß-cells in sufficient amounts to be transplanted into patients with diabetes. This review addresses many of the transcription factors and signaling pathways that play a role in early pancreatic development and endocrine cell (specifically ß-cell) differentiation, conditions that influence ß-cell mass development and molecular regulators of ß-cell proliferation and apoptosis that are responsible for maintaining and expanding ß-cell mass.