Tissue-specific targeting of the insulin receptor gene

The techniques to study the mechanisms that underlie the pathogenesis of disease processes have been revolutionized by the development of methods that allow spatiotemporal control of gene deletion or gene expression in transgenic and knockout animals. The ability to interfere with the function of a single protein in a specific tissue allows unprecedented flexibility for exploring gene function in both health and disease. The present review will summarize some of the different knockouts and transgenics generated recently to study type 2 diabetes and critically evaluate the techniques used to examine the function of the insulin receptor in two nonclassical insulin target tissues--the pancreatic islet and the central nervous system.