Based on a study conducted in a mouse pancreatic beta cell-derived cell line, MIN6, as well as in mice with targeted Npas4 gene knockout in pancreatic beta cells, NPAS4 directly represses transcription of the INS gene, encoding insulin (Sabatini et al. 2013, Sabatini et al. 2018). NPAS4 is thought to improve beta-cell efficiency under stress conditions and is implicated as a transcriptional regulator of other genes involved in beta cell function, such as Rgs2 (Sabatini et al. 2013). Targeted Npas4 knockout in pancreatic beta cells leads to beta cell dedifferentiation and type 2 diabetes in mice. NPAS4 may also be involved in the function of nutrient sensing cells in the hypothalamus (Sabatini et al. 2018).