Novel approaches to studying the role of innervation in the biology of pancreatic islets.

The autonomic nervous system helps regulate glucose homeostasis by acting on pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Despite decades of research on the innervation of the pancreatic islet, the mechanisms used by the autonomic nervous input to influence islet cell biology have not been elucidated. This article discusses how these barriers can be overcome to study the role of the autonomic innervation of the pancreatic islet in glucose metabolism. It describes recent advances in microscopy and novel approaches to studying the effects of nervous input that may help clarify how autonomic axons regulate islet biology.