Pancreatic Calcium Handling in Islet Beta Cells in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Approximately 400,000 people are living with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in the United Kingdom: one of the highest rates in the world. It is characterised by autoimmune loss of pancreatic beta cell mass leading to metabolic dysregulation, requiring lifelong insulin therapy. It is now recognised that there are micro-secretors of insulin and that preservation of insulin secretion in these cases is associated with decreased complications. Therefore, recent research has focussed on using immunomodulation to preserve pancreatic beta cell mass. Evaluation of novel therapies for T1DM requires reliable methods to measure beta-cell function, which is unattainable using traditional non-invasive imaging techniques. A new approach is manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI). This proof-of-concept study was designed to investigate whether MEMRI can be used as a measure of beta-cell function in people with T1DM.