A porcine islet of Langerhans. The left image is a brightfield image created using hematoxylin stain; nuclei are dark circles and the acinar pancreatic tissue is darker than the islet tissue. Haematoxylin, hematoxylin, Natural Black 1, or CI 75290 is extracted from the wood of the Logwood tree An acinus (adjective acinar, plural acini) refers to the berry-shaped termination of an Exocrine gland, where the secretion is produced The right image is the same section stained by immunofluorescence against insulin, indicating beta cells. Beta cells ( beta-cells, β-cells) are a type of cell in the Pancreas in areas called the Islets of Langerhans.

Islets of Langerhans, hemalum-eosin stain.

Illustration of dog pancreas. 250x.

The endocrine (i. The endocrine system is an integrated system of small organs that involve the release of extracellular signaling molecules known as Hormones The endocrine system is instrumental e. , hormone-producing) cells of the pancreas are grouped in the islets of Langerhans. Hormones (from Greek ὁρμή - "impetus" are chemicals released by cells that affect cells in other parts of the body The pancreas is a Gland organ in the digestive and Endocrine system of Vertebrates. Discovered in 1869 by the famous German pathological anatomist Paul Langerhans, the islets of Langerhans constitute approximately 1 to 2% of the mass of the pancreas. Year 1869 ( MDCCCLXIX) is a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Paul Langerhans ( July 25 1847 - July 20 1888) was a German pathologist, physiologist biologist. There are about one million islets in a healthy adult human pancreas, which are distributed evenly throughout the organ; their combined weight is 1 to 1. 5 grams.

Cell types

Hormones produced in the Islets of Langerhans are secreted directly into the blood flow by (at least) four different types of cells:^[1]

• Alpha cells producing glucagon (15-20% of total islet cells)
• Beta cells producing insulin and amylin (65-80%)
• Delta cells producing somatostatin (3-10%)
• PP cells producing pancreatic polypeptide (3-5%)
• Epsilon cells producing ghrelin. Alpha cells are endocrine cells in the Islets of Langerhans of the Pancreas. Glucagon is an important Hormone involved in Carbohydrate metabolism. Beta cells ( beta-cells, β-cells) are a type of cell in the Pancreas in areas called the Islets of Langerhans. Insulin is a Hormone with intensive effects on both metabolism and several other body systems (eg vascular compliance Amylin or Islet Amyloid Polypeptide (IAPP is a 37-residue Peptide hormone secreted by pancreatic β-cells at the same time as Insulin Delta cells (δ-cells or D cells are Somatostatin producing cells They can be found in the Stomach, Intestine and the Islets of Langerhans Somatostatin (also known as growth hormone inhibiting hormone ( GHIH) or somatotropin release-inhibiting factor ( SRIF) is a Peptide hormone PP cells (F cells are Pancreatic polypeptide producing cells in the Islets of Langerhans in the Pancreas. Pancreatic polypeptide is a Polypeptide secreted by PP cells in the Endocrine pancreas predominantly in the Head of the pancreas. Epsilon cells (ε-cells are Endocrine cells found in the Islets of Langerhans and produce the hormone Ghrelin. Ghrelin is a Hormone produced mainly by P/D1 cells lining the fundus of the human Stomach and epsilon cells of the Pancreas that stimulates (<1%)

Islets can influence each other through paracrine and autocrine communication, and beta-cells are coupled electrically to beta cells (but not to other cell types). Paracrine signaling is a form of Cell signaling in which the target cell is near (" Para " = near the signal-releasing cell Autocrine signaling is a form of signaling in which a cell secretes a hormone or chemical messenger (called the autocrine agent that binds to autocrine receptors on the same cell leading

Paracrine feedback

The paracrine feedback system of the islets of Langerhans has the following structure:^[2]

• Insulin: Activates beta cells and inhibits alpha cells.
• Glucagon: Activates alpha which activates beta cells and delta cells.
• Somatostatin: Inhibits alpha cells and beta cells

Electrical activity

Electrical activity of pancreatic islets has been studied using patch clamp techniques, and it has turned out that the behavior of cells in intact islets differs significantly from the behavior of dispersed cells^[3]. The patch clamp technique is a Laboratory technique in Electrophysiology that allows the study of single or multiple Ion channels in cells

As a treatment for type I diabetes

Because the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans are destroyed in type I diabetes, clinicians and researchers are actively pursuing islet transplantation technology as a means of curing this disease^[4]. Diabetes mellitus type 1 (Type 1 diabetes Type I diabetes T1D T1DM IDDM juvenile diabetes is a form of Diabetes mellitus. Islet transplantation is the transplantation of isolated islets from a donor Pancreas and into another person Rachel Harris, islet cell recipient, was transplanted at the Diabetes Research Institute in Miami, Florida. In June of 2004, Rachel became the world's longest surviving insulin-free diabetic according to the Miami Herald (published Feb. 13, 2004). ^[5]

Islet transplantation currently requires potent immunosuppression to prevent host rejection of donor islets. Immunosuppression involves an act that reduces the activation or Efficacy of the Immune system. An alternative source of beta cells, such an islets derived from adult stem cells or progenitor cells of a diabetic would eliminate the need for immuosuppressive therapy, and be safer for diabetics. Beta cells ( beta-cells, β-cells) are a type of cell in the Pancreas in areas called the Islets of Langerhans. Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells found throughout the body after embryonic development that divide to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged The concept of a progenitor cell is difficult to define Like Stem cells, progenitor cells have a capacity to differentiate into a specific type of cell ^[6].

Transplantation

With the possibility of restoring beta cells, the Chicago Project headed at University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center is investigating ways to regenerate beta cells in vivo. This article is about the flagship campus For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation The University of With that being said, beta cells experience apoptosis early and thus are destroyed within a normal-functioning pancreas. The source of this seems to come from the transfer of Pander, a gene that works by attaching to RNA^[7]. Ribonucleic acid ( RNA) is a Nucleic acid that consists of a long chain of Nucleotide units Pander, when active, causes the beta cells to be blocked at S phase, which induces apoptosis. The S phase, short for synthesis phase, is a period in the Cell cycle during Interphase, between G1 phase and the G2 phase. This loss of beta cell mass eventually leads to a loss of most of the transplanted beta cells.

References in pop culture

• A Harlan Ellison short story titled "Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W" appears in his collection Deathbird Stories. Harlan Jay Ellison (born May 27, 1934) is a prolific American Writer of Short stories, Novellas, Teleplays Deathbird Stories: A Pantheon of Modern Gods is a 1975 collection of Short stories written by Harlan Ellison over a period of ten years (Those coordinates locate the intersection of H and 2nd N. In Mathematics and its applications a coordinate system is a system for assigning an n - Tuple of Numbers or scalars to each point E. in Washington, D.C., behind Union Station)
• American parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic released a song entitled Pancreas on his album Straight Outta Lynwood, which continually repeats the lyrics "Insulin, Glucagon, comin' from the Islets of Langerhans" during the final minute of the song. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Union Station is the grand ceremonial Train station designed to be the entrance to Washington D A parody (ˈpɛɹədiː US, [ˈpaɹədiː] UK) in contemporary usage is a work created to mock comment on or poke fun at an original work its subject Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (ˈjæŋkəvɪk born October 23 1959 is a Grammy Award winning American singer Musician, actor satirist The pancreas is a Gland organ in the digestive and Endocrine system of Vertebrates. Straight Outta Lynwood is the twelfth album by "Weird Al" Yankovic. Insulin is a Hormone with intensive effects on both metabolism and several other body systems (eg vascular compliance Glucagon is an important Hormone involved in Carbohydrate metabolism.
• On their comedy album How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, The Firesign Theatre referred to immigrants who came "from little towns with strange names like Smegma, Spasmodic, Frog, and the far-flung Isles of Langerhans". How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All was the second Comedy album recorded by The Firesign Theatre. The Firesign Theatre is a Comedy troupe consisting of Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Philip Proctor. This article is about smegma a secretion of mammalian genitals
• In the Lord of the Rings parody book Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon, the map features two islands situated close to each other labled "The Isles of Langerhans". The Lord of the Rings is an epic Bored of the Rings is the title of a paperback parody of J R R The Harvard Lampoon is an Undergraduate humor publication and social organization founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts

External links

• MeSH A03.734.414
• Histology at OU 80_14 - "Pancreas"
• Diabetes Research Institute [1]
• Islet Cell Transplant Recipients [2]

Gallery

Hormones/Islet Architecture

Mouse islet immunostained for pancreatic polypeptide. Medical Subject Headings ( MeSH) is a huge Controlled vocabulary (or metadata system for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books University of Oklahoma, abbreviated OU, is a Coeducational public Research university located in the U

Mouse islet immunostained for insulin.

Mouse islet immunostained for glucagon.

References