INS and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Since ATP synthesis, KATP and VDCC are obvious targets at the proximal and distal rate-limiting or rate-potentiating steps of the insulin secretion under the control of calcium entry into β-cells (as described above), and with the on-going type 2 diabetes epidemic there is at present a keen interest in more fully elucidating all the molecular components that affect β-cell stimulus-secretion coupling, insulin synthesis and preserve β-cell function and mass.