Irregular menstrual cycles, reduced responses to exogenous hormonal treatments, and altered endocrine profiles (high FSH/high LH/low AMH) are observed in women with increasing age before menopause. In this study, because the granulosa cell-specific Nrg1 knockout mice (gcNrg1KO) presented ovarian and endocrine phenotypes similar to older women, we sought to understand the mechanisms of ovarian a...

Kurt B, Kurtz A. Plasticity of renal endocrine function. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 308: R455–R466, 2015. First published January 21, 2015; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00568.2013.—The kidneys are important endocrine organs. They secrete humoral factors, such as calcitriol, erythropoietin, klotho, and renin into the circulation, and therefore, they are essentially involved in the regulation ...

Postnatal pancreas is a potential source for progenitor cells to generate endocrine β-cells for treating type 1 diabetes. However, it remains unclear whether young (1-week-old) pancreas harbors multipotent progenitors capable of differentiating into duct, acinar, and endocrine cells. Laminin is an extracellular matrix (ECM) protein important for β-cells' survival and function. We established an...

The pancreatic and intestinal primordia contain epithelial progenitor cells that generate many cell types. During development, specific programs of gene expression restrict the developmental potential of such progenitors and promote their differentiation. The Insm1 (insulinoma-associated 1, IA-1) gene encodes a Zinc-finger factor that was discovered in an insulinoma cDNA library. We show that p...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression programs in the pancreas; however, little is known about the role of miRNA pathways during endocrine cell specification and maturation during neonatal life. In this study, we deleted Dicer1, an essential RNase for active miRNAs biogenesis, specifically from NGN3+ endocrine progenitor cells. We found that deletion of Dicer1 in endocr...

For over 30 yr, it has been known that enteroendocrine cells derive from common precursor cells in the intestinal crypts. Until recently, relatively little was understood about the events that result in commitment to endocrine differentiation or the segregation of over 10 different hormone-expressing cell types in the gastrointestinal tract. The earliest cell fate decisions appear to be regulat...

Histological and histochemical studies on the pancreas of goose (Anser albifrons) were carried out using special staining and light microscope. The pancreas in goose is serous tubuloacinar gland having exocrine and endocrine part. Smooth muscle fibres were absent in capsule of pancreas. Acinar cells have bizonal shape. Intralobular ducts, Interlobular and main excretory ducts were present withi...

Endocrine cells of gastric and gut mucosa are commonly thought to be present only within mucosal glands. In a previous report, we described argyrophilic cells in the lamina propria in 40% of surgical gastric specimens, using light microscopy. All these patients had chronic gastritis. Argyrophilia, however, is a non-specific reaction which could occur in other than endocrine cells. The present s...

It has been suggested by some studies of human and animal lungs that the products of pulmonary endocrine cells, particularly gastrin-releasing peptide, might play a role in fibrogenesis, but more recent detailed studies of fibrotic human lungs have failed to confirm this. We have made a detailed quantitative examination of a series of fibrotic human lungs to see if we could determine whether th...