Beta cells assume a fundamental role in maintaining blood glucose homeostasis through the secretion of insulin, which is contingent on both beta cell mass and function, in response to elevated blood glucose levels or secretagogues. For this reason, evaluating beta cell mass and function, as well as scrutinizing how they change over time in a diabetic state, are essential prerequisites in elucidating diabetes pathophysiology. Current clinical methods to measure human beta cell mass and/or function are largely lacking, indirect and sub-optimal, highlighting the continued need for noninvasive in vivo beta cell imaging technologies such as optical imaging techniques. While numerous probes have been developed and evaluated for their specificity to beta cells, most of them are more suited to visualize beta cell mass rather than function. In this review, we highlight the distinction between beta cell mass and function, and the importance of developing more probes to measure beta cell function. Additionally, we also explore various existing probes that can be employed to measure beta cell mass and function in vivo, as well as the caveats in probe development for in vivo beta cell imaging.

β细胞在通过胰岛素分泌来维持血糖稳态方面起着基本作用，胰岛素的分泌取决于β细胞的质量和功能，以应对升高的血糖水平或促分泌素。因此，评估β细胞的质量和功能，以及仔细检查它们在糖尿病状态下的变化是阐明糖尿病病理生理学的必要前提。当前缺乏测量人类β细胞质量和/或功能的临床方法，这些方法都是间接的，次优的，这突出表明了对体内无创性的持续需求β细胞成像技术，例如光学成像技术。尽管已经开发出许多探针并评估了它们对β细胞的特异性，但大多数探针更适合可视化β细胞质量而不是功能。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了β细胞质量和功能之间的区别，以及开发更多探针来测量β细胞功能的重要性。此外，我们还探索了可用于测量体内β细胞质量和功能的各种现有探针，以及体内β细胞成像探针开发的注意事项。