Violet Islets

Sometimes a different perspective can reveal hidden details. Here researchers take a microscopic flight through a piece of a human pancreas. Looking a little like a meteor belt, we see pancreatic islets (~10,000 times smaller than a pebble), with coloured stains highlighting chemicals they produce and squirt into the blood – insulin (purple) and glucagon (blue). Healthy islets help to balance our blood sugar levels. Insulin and glucagon help to lower or raise sugar levels respectively, but in type 1 diabetes, islets often lose control of these chemicals. Comparing healthy and diabetic islets reveals a surprising detail – that diabetic islets are missing many of their smaller insulin-producing islets. The researchers believe size may influence how islets are lost during progression of the disease. This clue to future treatment may be especially important for young people, who have smaller islets generally, and faster progressing diabetes.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

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A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Video from work by Alexandra Rippa and colleagues
• Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, Diabetes Institute, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, December 2025