The pancreas contains exocrine, endocrine, and ductal cells and serves two major functions: (a) the production of digestive enzymes, such as amylase and lipase, which are secreted by exocrine acinar cells and routed to the intestine by a branched ductal network; and (b) the regulation of blood sugar, which is achieved by endocrine cells of the islets of Langerhans. The endocrine cells, arranged...

A microfluidic system was developed to produce sinusoidal waveforms of glucose to entrain oscillations of intracellular [Ca(2+)] in islets of Langerhans. The work described is an improvement to a previously reported device where two pneumatic pumps delivered pulses of glucose and buffer to a mixing channel. The mixing channel acted as a low pass filter to attenuate these pulses to produce the d...

Changes in free intracellular Ca2+ concentration regulate insulin secretion from pancreatic beta-cells. The existence of steep Ca2+ gradients within the beta-cell requires the presence of specialized Ca2+ exclusion systems. In this study we have characterized the plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPases (PMCAs) which extrude Ca2+ from the cytoplasm. PMCA isoform- and subtype-specific mRNA expression was in...

BACKGROUND Human regulatory T cells (Treg) offer an attractive adjunctive therapy to reduce current reliance on lifelong, nonspecific immunosuppression after transplantation. Here, we evaluated the ability of ex vivo expanded human Treg to prevent the rejection of islets of Langerhans in a humanized mouse model and examined the mechanisms involved. METHODS We engrafted human pancreatic islets...

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in an effort to evaluate the hypoglycemic activity of t. polium, the crude extract was administered orally to a group of streptozotocin induced diabetic rats for 6 consecutive weeks. significant decrease in blood glucose by 64%, total bilirubin by 35%, glutamate oxaloacetate transferase by 48% and glutamate pyruvate transferase by 30% was observed compared to untreated diabetic rats. however, t...

Grapensparr, L. 2017. Auxiliary Cells for the Vascularization and Function of Endogenous and Transplanted Islets of Langerhans. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1348. 56 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0023-8. Type 1 diabetes develops through the progressive destruction of the insulin-producing betacells. Regenera...

Hyperglycaemia has been observed with exposure to organophosphate insecticides. This study was designed to compare the effects of calcium channel blockers, alpha-adrenergic, beta-adrenergic, and muscarinic receptor blockers, and of free radical scavengers on insulin secretion from diazinon-treated islets of Langerhans isolated from the pancreas of rats using standard collagenase digestion, sepa...

Abstract Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a neuropeptide with widespread occurrence and diverse functions. PACAP binds to specific PAC1 non-specific VPAC1/2 receptors. considered as growth factor, it plays important roles during development participates in reparative processes. Highest concentrations are found the nervous system endocrine glands, where several funct...

Immunohistochemical localization of islets of Langerhans of streptozotocin (65 mg/kg, ip) induced diabetic + glurenorm (10 mg/kg, po) treated female albino rats revealed increase in number of beta cells and insulin immunoreactivity of beta cells. The results suggest that glurenorm can cause the stimulation of beta cells of endocrine pancreas in diabetic rats.