B-cells accumulate in pancreatic islets during the autoimmune response that precedes the onset of type 1 diabetes. However, the role and antigenic specificity of these cells remain a mystery. To elucidate the antigenic repertoire of islet-infiltrating B-cells in type 1 diabetes, we generated hybridoma cell lines of islet-infiltrating B-cells from nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice and NOD mice expres...

OBJECTIVES This study is to investigate the relationship between 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH-D) and pancreatic islet β cell function under different glucose tolerance statuses in China. METHODOLOGY Totally, 180 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM group), 178 patients with impaired fasting glucose/impaired glucose tolerance (IFG/IGT group), and 160 normal control subjects (NGT group) wer...

Pancreatic islet transplantation has been validated as a treatment for type 1 diabetes since it maintains consistent and sustained type 1 diabetes reversal. However, one of the major challenges in pancreatic islet transplantation is the body's natural immune response to the implanted islets. Immunosuppressive drug treatment is the most popular immunomodulatory approach for islet graft survival....

Vanadium salts have been suggested as a possible therapeutic agent for the treatment of diabetes. The aim of the present study was to clarify histological and immunohistochemical changes that occur in the pancreatic beta (β) cells of vanadyl sulphate (VS)-treated streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. Male Wi star rats were made diabetic by injecting a single intravenous dose of STZ (...

Paternal obesity programs metabolic syndrome in offspring. Low-impact exercise in obese  males improves the metabolic health of female offspring, however whether this occurred in male  offspring remained unknown. C57BL/6NHsd (Harlan) mice were fed a control diet (CD; 6% fat, n =  7) or a high-fat diet (HFD; 21% fat, n = 16) for 18 weeks. After 9 weeks, HFD-fed mice either remained  sedentary (H...

The small GTPase Ran orchestrates pleiotropic cellular responses of nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling, mitosis and subcellular trafficking, but whether deregulation of these pathways contributes to disease pathogenesis has remained elusive. Here, we generated transgenic mice expressing wild type (WT) Ran, loss-of-function Ran T24N mutant or constitutively active Ran G19V mutant in pancreatic islet β...

The therapeutic potential of stem cells has led to renewed interest in regenerative biology. Pancreatic stellate cells have been reported in the mammalian pancreas; however, there are very few reports on stellate cells in the chicken pancreas. The intercalated duct epithelial cells observed in the A and B islets of the chicken pancreas have been claimed to be stellate cells from their morpholog...

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS Protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5) is a marker for neuroendocrine cells but has not been used for pancreatic islet cells and pancreatic endocrine tumors (PETs). Antibodies for PGP 9.5 are now commercially available for immunocytochemical study, with which immunostaining may be able to differentiate between benign and malignant PETs. RESULTS All 4 kinds of normal islet cells we...

2014 Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that represents a major socioeconomic burden worldwide; approximately 90–95% of patients are diagnosed as Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among the new cases of diabetes. Pancreatic islet β-cell failure is one of the key features of T2DM, which is resultant from chronic hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia, thus eventually leading to β-cell insulin secret...

Islet transplantation is a promising cure for diabetes. However, inflammation, allorejection, and recurrent autoimmune damage all may contribute to early graft loss. Pancreatic islets express lower levels of antioxidant genes than most other tissues of the body, and beta-cells in particular are sensitive to oxidative damage. Therefore, damage from oxidative stress may pose a major obstacle to i...