Pancreatic islets of Langerhans contain several specialized endocrine cell types, which are commonly identified by the expression of single marker genes. However, the established marker genes cannot capture the complete spectrum of cellular heterogeneity in human pancreatic islets, and existing bulk transcriptome datasets provide averages across several cell populations. To dissect the cellular...

The regenerative process in the pancreas is of particular interest, since diabetes, whether Type 1 or Type 2, results from an inadequate amount of insulin-producing β-cells. Islet neogenesis, or the formation of new islets, seen as budding of hormone-positive cells from the ductal epithelium, has long been considered to be one of the mechanisms of normal islet growth after birth and in regenera...

In the present study, we investigated types of pancreatic endocrine cells and its respective peptides in the Brazilian sparrow species using immunocytochemistry. The use of polyclonal specific antisera for somatostatin, glucagon, avian pancreatic polypeptide (APP), YY polypeptide (PYY) and insulin, revealed a diversified distribution in the pancreas. All these types of immunoreactive cells were...

BACKGROUND Although the existence of cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity (CCK-LI) in rat pancreas had been reported previously, it was never clearly demonstrated whether CCK is produced in rat pancreatic islets. AIMS The purpose of this study was to elucidate the source of the CCK-LI, the molecular properties of CCK, and the expression of the CCK gene in islet cells. METHODS Immunohistoch...

Inosine, guanosine and adenosine strongly stimulated proinsulin biosynthesis and insulin secretion in isolated mouse pancreatic islets. None of the purine ribonucleosides stimulated insulin secretion in rat islets, although as reported [jain & Logothetopoulos (1977) Endocrinilogy 100, 923-927] inosine and guanosine, but no adenosine, were potent stimulants of proinsulin biosynthesis in this spe...

TABLE 1 Landmarks in the history of the islets of Langerhans 1869 First description of pancreatic islets by Langerhans 1902 First tumour of the islets described by Nicholls 1922 Discovery of insulin by Banting and Best 1923 Discovery of glucagon by Murlin and colleagues 1924 Harris postulates the possibility of insulinoma 1927 Wilder extracts insulin from a malignant pancreatic tumour explored ...

Autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D) development results from the interaction between pancreatic β-cells, and the innate and the adaptive immune systems culminating with the destruction of the insulin-secreting β-cells by autoreactive T cells. This diabetogenic course starts during the first postnatal weeks by the infiltration of the pancreatic islets by innate immune cells and particularly neutrop...

To test the hypothesis that insulin secretion in pregnant rats fed LP diet is reduced by ghrelin signaling in pancreatic islets,  we investigated plasma insulin levels, expression of ghrelin and its receptor and glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) of pancreatic islets in response to ghrelin. Plasma insulin levels were lower and ghrelin receptor abundance in islets was unaltered in LP ra...

A pancreatic islet cell-specific enhancer sequence (PISCES) shared by the rat insulin-I, glucagon, and somatostatin genes binds the paired domain-containing transcription factor Pax6 and confers strong transcriptional activity in pancreatic islet cell lines. It was found recently that Pax6 plays a major role in islet development. In the present study, transgenic mice were used to investigate PI...

The precise role of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a target of metformin, in pancreatic β cells remains controversial, even though metformin was recently shown to enhance the expression of incretin receptors (GLP-1 and GIP receptors) in pancreatic β cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of AMPK in the regulation of incretin receptors expression in pancreatic islets. The phospho...