One possibility isthat Wnt activation plays an adaptive role early in type II diabetes, perhapsin promoting β-cell proliferation [13],while chronic pathway activation leads to cell death, a well-recognizedfunction of c-myc [44, 54].The mouse studies suggest but do not yet prove definitively that Wnt activationcould be an early event in diabetes pathogenesis that is associated with high-fatdiet. The gene discussed is MYC; the disease is diabetes mellitus.