Age-dependent human β cell proliferation induced by GLP-1 and calcineurin signaling

We developed an engraftment strategy to examine age-associated human islet cell replication and found that Ex-4, an agonist of GLP-1R, stimulates human β cell proliferation in juvenile, but not adult islets. We showed that this β cell proliferative response to Ex-4 requires Cn/NFAT signaling. We transplanted human islets under renal capsule of NSG mice and removed the human islet grafts 4 weeks after Ex-4 or PBS treatment. The total RNAs were extracted from the grafts and used for RNAseq.