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Tissue surface tensions guide in vitro self‐assembly of rodent pancreatic islet cells
Author(s) -
Jia Dongxuan,
Dajusta Daniel,
Foty Ramsey A.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
developmental dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.634
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1097-0177
pISSN - 1058-8388
DOI - 10.1002/dvdy.21207
Subject(s) - islet , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , pancreatic islets , delta cell , in vitro , pancreatic polypeptide , enteroendocrine cell , cell sorting , cell adhesion , adhesion , cell culture , cell , glucagon , endocrinology , medicine , insulin , chemistry , endocrine system , hormone , biochemistry , genetics , organic chemistry
The organization of endocrine cells in pancreatic islets is established through a series of morphogenetic events involving cell sorting, migration, and re‐aggregation processes for which intercellular adhesion is thought to play a central role. In animals, these morphogenetic events result in an islet topology in which insulin‐secreting cells form the core, while glucagon, somatostatin, and pancreatic polypeptide‐secreting cells segregate to the periphery. Isolated pancreatic islet cells self‐assemble in vitro into pseudoislets with the same cell type organization as native islets. It is widely held that differential adhesion between cells of the pancreatic islets generates this specific topology. However, this differential adhesion has never been rigorously quantified. In this manuscript, we use tissue surface tensiometry to measure the cohesivity of spherical aggregates from three immortalized mouse pancreatic islet cell lines. We show that, as predicted by the differential adhesion hypothesis, aggregates of the internally segregating INS‐1 and MIN6 beta‐cell lines are substantially more cohesive than those of the externally segregating α‐TC line. Furthermore, we show that forced overexpression of P‐cadherin by α‐TC cells significantly perturbs the sorting process. Collectively, the data indicate that differential adhesion can drive the in vitro organization of immortalized rodent pancreatic islet cells. Developmental Dynamics 236:2039–2049, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.