Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28401081›Full record

ReviewPreventive nutrition and food science2017

Zinc in Pancreatic Islet Biology, Insulin Sensitivity, and Diabetes.

Wolfgang Maret

Open access · greenAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Preventive nutrition and food science, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
62citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
8.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

62 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 139 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Type 2 diabetes mellitus and zinc dysregulation: From basic and epidemiological evidence to interventions.Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS) · 2025
    Review
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. The Arcana of Zinc.The Journal of nutrition · 2025
    Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Wolfgang MaretDivision of Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, London SE1 9NH, UK.
King's College London · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

About 20 chemical elements are nutritionally essential for humans with defined molecular functions. Several essential and nonessential biometals are either functional nutrients with antidiabetic actions or can be diabetogenic. A key question remains whether changes in the metabolism of biometals and biominerals are a consequence of diabetes or are involved in its etiology. Exploration of the roles of zinc (Zn) in this regard is most revealing because 80 years of scientific discoveries link zinc and diabetes. In pancreatic β- and α-cells, zinc has specific functions in the biochemistry of insulin and glucagon. When zinc ions are secreted during vesicular exocytosis, they have autocrine, paracrine, and endocrine roles. The membrane protein ZnT8 transports zinc ions into the insulin and glucagon granules. ZnT8 has a risk allele that predisposes the majority of humans to developing diabetes. In target tissues, increased availability of zinc enhances the insulin response by inhibiting protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B, which controls the phosphorylation state of the insulin receptor and hence downstream signalling. Inherited diseases of zinc metabolism, environmental exposures that interfere with the control of cellular zinc homeostasis, and nutritional or conditioned zinc deficiency influence the patho-biochemistry of diabetes. Accepting the view that zinc is one of the many factors in multiple gene-environment interactions that cause the functional demise of β-cells generates an immense potential for treating and perhaps preventing diabetes. Personalized nutrition, bioactive food, and pharmaceuticals targeting the control of cellular zinc in precision medicine are among the possible interventions.

Indexed as

biometalsdiabetesinsulin resistancepancreaszinc

Identifiers

PMID28401081
PMCPMC5383135
OpenAlexW2681612409

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.