| First Author | Liu Q | Year | 2021 |
| Journal | Exp Mol Med | Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 4 | Pages | 605-614 |
| PubMed ID | 33820959 | Mgi Jnum | J:316147 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6811891 | Doi | 10.1038/s12276-021-00593-z |
| Citation | Liu Q, et al. (2021) Insulin-positive ductal cells do not migrate into preexisting islets during pregnancy. Exp Mol Med 53(4):605-614 |
| abstractText | The adult pancreatic ductal system was suggested to harbor facultative beta-cell progenitors similar to the embryonic pancreas, and the appearance of insulin-positive duct cells has been used as evidence for natural duct-to-beta-cell reprogramming. Nevertheless, the phenotype and fate of these insulin-positive cells in ducts have not been determined. Here, we used a cell-tagging dye, CFDA-SE, to permanently label pancreatic duct cells through an intraductal infusion technique. Representing a time when significant increases in beta-cell mass occur, pregnancy was later induced in these CFDA-SE-treated mice to assess the phenotype and fate of the insulin-positive cells in ducts. We found that a small portion of CFDA-SE-labeled duct cells became insulin-positive, but they were not fully functional beta-cells based on the in vitro glucose response and the expression levels of key beta-cell genes. Moreover, these insulin-positive cells in ducts expressed significantly lower levels of genes associated with extracellular matrix degradation and cell migration, which may thus prevent their budding and migration into preexisting islets. A similar conclusion was reached through analysis of the Gene Expression Omnibus database for both mice and humans. Together, our data suggest that the contribution of duct cells to normal beta-cells in adult islets is minimal at best. |
