Human islet transplantation seems to be a very promising clinical procedure for patients with type I diabetes mellitus. The aim of our study was to investigate the influence of in situ intravascular flushing with University of Wisconsin (UW) solution and intraductal collagenase injection at the time of pancreas procurement on the isolated islets and exocrine tissue injury. Our experiments indic...

In children with obesity, insulin hypersecretion is proposed to precede resistance. We investigated if metformin could be used attenuate secretion from palmitate-treated isolated islets and its implication for obesity. Human were exposed palmitate 0.5 or 1 day, when was introduced. After culture, glucose-stimulated (GSIS) measured. Children who had received over six months (n = 21, age 13.9 ± 1...

The ability of the fetal pancreatic islet cells to multiply rendered them a potential tissue for transplantation studies to cure diabetes. A bank of fetal islets could be created with proper storage in liquid nitrogen. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of thawing rate and post-thaw culture on the structural and functional integrity of isolated cryopreserved islets of rat fetuses. ...

The proliferation of pancreatic β cells is enhanced to enable an increase in β-cell mass and to compensate for insulin resistance during pregnancy. To elucidate the mechanisms involved, we previously investigated islets from pregnant and nonpregnant mice by gene expression profiling and found that the expression of postsynaptic density-95/Discs large/zonula occludens-1 (PDZ)-binding kinase (Pbk...

UNLABELLED Islet transplantation is a promising treatment for type 1 diabetic patients. However, there is acute as well as chronic loss of islets after transplantation. A noninvasive imaging method that could monitor islet mass might help to improve transplantation outcomes. In this study, islets were visualized after transplantation in a rat model with a dedicated small-animal SPECT scanner by...

AIMS Beta cells adapt to an increased insulin demand by enhancing insulin secretion via increased beta cell function and/or increased beta cell number. While morphological and functional heterogeneity between individual islets exists, it is unknown whether regional differences in beta cell adaptation occur. Therefore we investigated beta cell adaptation throughout the pancreas in a model of hig...

Reg (regenerating gene) was isolated as a gene specifically expressed in regenerating islets. We have demonstrated in vitro and in vivo that the exogenous addition of rat and human Reg gene products, Reg/REG proteins, induced beta-cell replication via the Reg receptor and thereby ameliorated experimental diabetes. In the present study, we produced Reg knockout mice by homologous recombination. ...

Administration of a sucrose-rich diet (SRD) to normal hamsters induces an insulin-resistant state and a significant increase of insulin secretion and beta-cell mass. Islets isolated from these animals had a marked increase in glucose metabolism and glucose-induced insulin secretion, at both low and high glucose concentrations. They also presented increased hexokinase (HK) activity, without meas...

Recent evidence has suggested that pancreatic islets isolated from rats synthesize 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol (DAG) de novo from glucose and that this process may constitute the long-sought link between the metabolism of glucose and the induction of insulin secretion. The cell-permeant diacylglycerol 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol (200 microM) has been found here to amplify both the first and second...

The role of protein kinase C (PKC) as a mediator of glucose-induced insulin secretion has been a subject of controversy. Glucose-induced translocation of PKC has not been reported, and the relevant PKC isoenzymes in islets have not been identified. To address these issues, we developed specific antibodies to the alpha, beta, and gamma isoenzymes of PKC. Western blots of homogenates of freshly i...