German Kilimnik, Abraham Kim, Donald F. Steiner, Theodore C. Friedman and Manami Hara

German Kilimnik

Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA

Abraham Kim

Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA

Donald F. Steiner

Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA

Theodore C. Friedman

Divison of Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine, Charles Drew University of Medicine & Sciences, Los Angeles, CA USA

Manami Hara

Corresponding author: mhara@midway.uchicago.edu
Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA

The islet of Langerhans is a highly vascularized micro-organ consisting of not only beta-cells but multiple cell types such as α-, δ-, pancreatic polypeptide- and epsilon-cells that work together to regulate glucose homeostatis. We have recently proposed a new model of the neonatal islet formation in mice by a process of fission following contiguous endocrine cell proliferation in the form of branched cord-like structures in embryos and newborns. There exist large stretches of interconnected islet structures along large blood vessels in the neonatal pancreas, which upon further development segregate into smaller fragments (i.e. islets) that eventually become more spherical by internal proliferation as seen in the adult pancreas. α-cells span these elongated islet-like structures in the developing pancreas, which we hypothesize represent sites of fission and facilitate the eventual formation of discrete islets. The α-cells express both prohormone convertase 2 and 1/3 (PC2 and PC1/3, respectively), which resulted in the processing of the proglucagon precursor into glucagon-like peptide 1, thereby leading to local production of this important β-cell growth factor. Furthermore, while α-cells in the adult basically only express PC2, significant activation of PC1/3 is also observed in mouse models of insulin resistance such as pregnant, ob/ob, db/db and prediabetic NOD mice, which may be a common mechanism in proliferating β-cells. Our study suggests an important role for alpha-cells for β-cell proliferation and further that of the endocrine cell network within an islet.