Kisspeptins are a family of peptides encoded by the KISS1 gene.The KISS-1 gene encodes a 145-amino acid protein, which is cleaved into various forms including kisspeptin-54, kisspeptin-14, kisspeptin-13 and kisspeptin-10, named with respect to their length in amino acids. [1]The Kiss-1 gene has been suggested as a suppressor of metastasis in a various types of cancer, including gastric cancer, oesophageal carcinoma, pancreatic, ovarian, bladder and prostate cancer, through the regulation of cellular migration and invasion[2].

Some researches have recently demonstrated the presence of kisspeptin and GPR54 mRNAs in both pancreatic B and A cells and GPR54 expression in MIN6 and αTC1 pancreatic cell lines. Kisspeptin-54 has been shown to stimulate the late phase of glucose-induced insulin secretion in mouse and human islets and to inhibit insulin secretion from MIN6 cells.kisspeptin-13 is tempting to speculate that the kisspeptin family may be implicated in the regulation of B-cell secretion. The lack of effect of kisspeptin-13 on both glucagon and somatostatin secretion would indicate that it influences the B cell directly, rather than through an A- or D-cell paracrine effect. Both kisspeptin-10 and kisspeptin-13, which is an extension of kisspeptin-10 by three amino acids, act directly at islet β-cells of various species to potentiate insulin secretion, and suggest that inhibitory effects reported in earlier studies may reflect differences in experimental protocols[3].

Kisspeptins has recently been identified by three different groups as endogenous ligands of the Kiss 1 receptor (Kiss-1R), a G protein-coupled receptor (GPR) also known as hOT7T175, AXOR12 or GPR54.

Reference:

[1] R A Silvestre, E M Egido, R Hernández, et al. Kisspeptin-13 inhibits insulin secretion without affecting glucagon or somatostatin release: study in the perfused rat pancreas.J Endocrinol February 1. 2008,196,283-290 [2] Ji K, Ye L, Mason MD, Jiang WG.The Kiss-1/Kiss-1R complex as a negative regulator of cell motility and cancer metastasis. Int J Mol Med. 2013, 32(4):747-754 [3] Bowe JE, Foot VL, Amiel SA, ea al.GPR54 peptide agonists stimulate insulin secretion from murine, porcine and human islets. Islets. 2012, 4(1):20-23.