{"doi":"10.3389/fendo.2022.934775","title":"Alpha-cell paracrine signaling in the regulation of beta-cell insulin secretion","abstract":"As an incretin hormone, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) lowers blood glucose levels by enhancing glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from pancreatic beta-cells. Therapies targeting the GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) use the classical incretin model as a physiological framework in which GLP-1 secreted from enteroendocrine L-cells acts on the beta-cell GLP-1R. However, this model has come into question, as evidence demonstrating local, intra-islet GLP-1 production has advanced the competing hypothesis that the incretin activity of GLP-1 may reflect paracrine signaling of GLP-1 from alpha-cells on GLP-1Rs on beta-cells. Additionally, recent studies suggest that alpha-cell-derived glucagon can serve as an additional, albeit less potent, ligand for the beta-cell GLP-1R, thereby expanding the role of alpha-cells beyond that of a counterregulatory cell type. Efforts to understand the role of the alpha-cell in the regulation of islet function have revealed both transcriptional and functional heterogeneity within the alpha-cell population. Further analysis of this heterogeneity suggests that functionally distinct alpha-cell subpopulations display alterations in islet hormone profile. Thus, the role of the alpha-cell in glucose homeostasis has evolved in recent years, such that alpha-cell to beta-cell communication now presents a critical axis regulating the functional capacity of beta-cells. Herein, we describe and integrate recent advances in our understanding of the impact of alpha-cell paracrine signaling on insulin secretory dynamics and how this intra-islet crosstalk more broadly contributes to whole-body glucose regulation in health and under metabolic stress. Moreover, we explore how these conceptual changes in our understanding of intra-islet GLP-1 biology may impact our understanding of the mechanisms of incretin-based therapeutics.","journal":"Frontiers in Endocrinology","year":2022,"id":237111,"datarank":0.6238324625039509,"base_score":4.1588830833596715,"endowment":4.1588830833596715,"self_citation_contribution":0.6238324625039509,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6238324625039509,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":63,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.952,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":368724,"name":"Mridusmita Saikia","orcid":"0000-0002-5848-3303","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295098,"name":"Bethany P. Cummings","orcid":"0000-0002-0610-9870","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295095,"name":"Marlena M. Holter","orcid":"0000-0002-1748-5409","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":114,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:22:08.925400Z","pmid":"35957816","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}