The islets of Langerhans, the primary source of hormone production in the pancreas, have been the focus of research into the nature of diabetes for decades.

Preface Hiroshi Okamoto; Introductory overview Hiroshi Okamoto; Part I. The Molecular Biology of Peptide Hormones in the Islets of Langerhans: 1. The organization and structure of insulin genes Graeme I. Bell and Susumu Seino; 2. The regulation of insulin gene expression Michael D. Walker; 3. The translational control of proinsulin synthesis by glucose Nobuyuki Itoh; 4. The structure and regulation of the glucagon gene Joel F. Habener; 5. The structure and regulation of the somatostatin gene Joel F. Habener; 6. The mosaic evolution of the pancreatic polypeptide gene Hiroshi Yamamoto, Hideto Yonekura and Koji Nata; 7. The structure and expression of genes of vasoactive intestinal peptide and related peptides Takashi Yamagami; 8. Pancreastatin: a novel pancreatic hormone Kazuhiko Tatemoto; 9. The processing of peptide precursors Thue W. Schwartz; Part II. Molecular Aspects of Diabetes Mellitus: 10. The molecular basis of experimental diabetes Hiroshi Okamoto; 11. Class II histocompatibility genes and diabetes David Owerbach; 12. The role of the insulin gene in diabetes: use of restriction fragment length polymorphisms in diagnosis Steven C. Elben and M. Alan Permutt; 13. Abnormal products of the human insulin gene Howard S. Tager; 14. A novel gene, rig, activated in insulinomas Shin Takasawa, Chiyoko Inoue, Kiyoto Shiga and Motoo Kitagawa; 16. Defects of signal transduction in a tumoral islet cell line Willy J. Malaisse; Index.