Since the publication of the first edition of The Diabetic Pancreas in 1977, much progress has been made in various areas of diabetes research. While only a rela- tively short while ago diabetes was considered a single disease, in more recent years it has become apparent that it is a heterogeneous group of disorders, all of which are characterized by a decreased tolerance of carbohydrates and most of which have a genetic basis, although the genetic types vary. In more recent years, an International Work Group sponsored by the National Diabetes Data Group of the NIH proposed a now generally...