Molecular Imaging of Diabetic Pancreas

Diabetes is characterized by impaired insulin production by pancreatic beta cells. Metabolic testing in clinical settings does not adequately reflect beta cell mass (BCM), which is a target of multiple therapies under development. Thus, reliable imaging agents are needed for monitoring changes in beta cells during diabetes development and therapy. Various imaging modalities such as PET/CT, SPECT, MRI and PET-MRI have been investigated for in vivo imaging of pancreas. Application of these modalities for beta cell imaging is hampered by lack of beta cell specific imaging probes. Proteomics, systems biology, antibody library screening and phage display screening have been employed to find a suitable target on beta cell surface in order to design the probes for imaging functional beta cell mass. We expect that in the near future these methods will eventually lead to discovery of suitable marker(s) for beta cell paving the way for development of imaging probes for clinical settings.