When new fellows join my lab, I give them some reading materials so that they can orient themselves in their assignment in a new eld. When fellows leave my lab, some after writing their dissertations, I prefer to give them a book as a symbolic present. I was longing for a book that contained something on more or less eve- thing about the islets. At the same time, I wished it contained information as recent as possible. There are a few such books in the market but they are pretty outdated. I started picking islets myself from October 1990, when I joined the Rolf Luft Center, Karolinska Institutet. Over the years my fascination for islet research remained high. Since last year, I felt a stronger urge to do more for these mysterious and hidden mini-organs that are directly or indirectly involved in the pathogenesis of all forms of diabetes that affects ?250 million people in the world. After I launched the Islet (landesbioscience. com/journals/islets) and founded the Islet Society (isletso- ety. org), there was a momentum that could be utilized to create something equally meaningful i. e. this book. The idea cracked in September 2008. Starting September 19, 2008, I contacted an estimated 90% of the authors who published anything on the islets during 2007-2008 and who could be traced from the internet.

Inhalt
Microscopic Anatomy of the Human Islet of Langerhans.- The Comparative Anatomy of Islets.- Approaches for Imaging Islets: Recent Advances and Future Prospects.- Islet Cell Development.- High Fat Programming of ?-Cell Failure.- Nutrient Regulation of Insulin Secretion and ?-Cell Functional Integrity.- Electrophysiology of Islet Cells.- ATP-Sensitive Potassium Channels in Health and Disease.- Role of Mitochondria in ?-cell Function and Dysfunction.- Basement Membrane in Pancreatic Islet Function.- Calcium Signaling in the Islets.- Electrical Bursting, Calcium Oscillations, and Synchronization of Pancreatic Islets.- Cyclic AMP Signaling in Pancreatic Islets.- Exocytosis in Islet ?-Cells.- The Novel Roles of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1, Angiotensin II, and Vitamin D in Islet Function.- Proteomics and Islet Research.- Wnt Signaling in Pancreatic Islets.- Molecular Pathways Underlying the Pathogenesis of Pancreatic ?-Cell Dysfunction.- Mechanisms of Pancreatic ?-Cell Apoptosis in Diabetes and Its Therapies.- ?-Cell Function in Obese-Hyperglycemic Mice [ob/ob Mice].- Islet Structure and Function in the GK Rat.- The ?-Cell in Human Type 2 Diabetes.- Clinical Approaches to Preserve ?-Cell Function in Diabetes.- Immunology of ?-Cell Destruction.- Toll-Like Receptors and Type 1 Diabetes.- Prevention of ?-Cell Destruction in Autoimmune Diabetes: Current Approaches and Future Prospects.- In Vivo Regeneration of Insulin-Producing ?-Cells.- Customized Cell-Based Treatment Options to Combat Autoimmunity and Restore ?-Cell Function in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Current Protocols and Future Perspectives.- The Programmable Cell of Monocytic Origin (PCMO): A Potential Adult Stem/Progenitor Cell Source for the Generation of Islet Cells.- Islet Isolation for ClinicalTransplantation.- Human Islet Autotransplantation: The Trail Thus Far and the Highway Ahead.- Modulation of Early Inflammatory Reactions to Promote Engraftment and Function of Transplanted Pancreatic Islets in Autoimmune Diabetes.- Successes and Disappointments with Clinical Islet Transplantation.- Islet Cell Tumours.