This review focuses on the human pancreatic islet—including its structure, cell composition, development, function, and dysfunction. After providing a historical timeline of key discoveries about human islets over the past century, we describe new research approaches and technologies that are being used to study human islets and how these are providing insight into human islet physiology and pathophysiology. We also describe changes or adaptations in human islets in response to physiologic challenges such as pregnancy, aging, and insulin resistance and discuss islet changes in human diabetes of many forms. We outline current and future interventions being developed to protect, restore, or replace human islets. The review also highlights unresolved questions about human islets and proposes areas where additional research on human islets is needed.

中文翻译：

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人体胰岛：具有巨大影响力的迷你器官


本综述重点关注人类胰岛，包括其结构、细胞组成、发育、功能和功能障碍。在提供了过去一个世纪有关人类胰岛的重要发现的历史时间表之后，我们描述了用于研究人类胰岛的新研究方法和技术，以及这些方法和技术如何提供对人类胰岛生理学和病理生理学的深入了解。我们还描述了人类胰岛因怀孕、衰老和胰岛素抵抗等生理挑战而发生的变化或适应，并讨论了多种形式的人类糖尿​​病中的胰岛变化。我们概述了当前和未来正在开发的用于保护、恢复或替代人类胰岛的干预措施。该综述还强调了有关人类胰岛的尚未解决的问题，并提出了需要对人类胰岛进行进一步研究的领域。