Pancreatic Fat Quantification in Human Diabetes and Its Relationship with β-Cell Reduction

Motivation: Patients with type 2 diabetes have more pancreatic fat, but its impact on β-cells is unclear. Goal(s): Our goal is to explore the impact of pancreatic fat on β-cells. Approach: We employed 6-point Dixon MRI to confirm the pancreatic fat fraction (PFF) in patients with type 2 diabetes. Histologic analysis was conducted to validate our findings and immunohistochemical staining was performed to observe changes in β-cells. Results: We found a negative relationship between β-cell mass and PFF in patients with type 2 diabetes. This suggested that the increased pancreatic fat observed in type 2 diabetes might contribute to reducing the number of β-cells. Impact: This study provided evidence that increased pancreatic fat in type 2 diabetes was associated with a decreased number of β-cells. These findings suggested targeting pancreatic fat accumulation could be a potential therapeutic approach for improving glycemic control in diabetic patients.