The islets of Langerhans harbor multiple endocrine cell types that continuously respond to circulating nutrient levels in order to adjust their secretion of catabolic and anabolic hormones. Stimulus–secretion coupling in these cells is largely of metabolic nature; that is, metabolism of nutrient fuels yields signals that trigger and amplify secretion of hormones. Hence, metabolism in this micro-organ is in a major way in control of whole-body metabolism. Therefore, insights into islet metabolism are critical to understand how secretion of insulin is regulated and why it is perturbed in type 2 diabetes.

Metabolomics aims at characterizing a wide spectrum of metabolites in cells, tissues and body fluids. For this reason, this technique is well suited to supply information on stimulus–secretion coupling. Here, we summarize metabolomics studies in islets and β-cells, highlight important discoveries that would have been difficult to make without this technology but also raise awareness of challenges and bottlenecks that curtail its use in metabolic research.

朗格汉斯岛的胰岛具有多种内分泌细胞类型，这些内分泌细胞类型不断响应循环中的营养水平，以调节其分解代谢激素和合成代谢激素的分泌。这些细胞中的刺激-分泌偶联在很大程度上具有代谢性质。也就是说，营养燃料的代谢会产生触发和放大激素分泌的信号。因此，该微器官中的新陈代谢是控制全身新陈代谢的主要方式。因此，对胰岛代谢的见解对于了解胰岛素分泌如何受到调控以及在2型糖尿病中为何受到干扰至关重要。

代谢组学旨在表征细胞，组织和体液中多种代谢物。因此，该技术非常适合提供有关刺激-分泌耦合的信息。在这里，我们总结了对胰岛和β细胞的代谢组学研究，重点介绍了如果没有这项技术就很难进行的重要发现，同时也提高了人们对限制其在代谢研究中使用的挑战和瓶颈的认识。