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Pancreatic Beta and Alpha Cell Expression Patterns Across Avian Species
Author(s) -
Hostetter Kimberly,
Sweazea Karen L,
Braun Eldon J
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.778.8
Subject(s) - pancreas , glucagon , beta cell , medicine , endocrinology , biology , hormone , insulin , glucose homeostasis , alpha (finance) , alpha cell , islet , delta cell , immunohistochemistry , fowl , diabetes mellitus , beta (programming language) , insulin resistance , ecology , construct validity , nursing , computer science , patient satisfaction , programming language
The mammalian pancreas has a remarkable ability to maintain glucose homeostasis. This is accomplished through the production of the blood glucose lowering hormone insulin as well as its counter‐regulatory hormone glucagon. The concept of avian diabetes arose in early studies conducted by Minkowski in the late 1800's which demonstrated that removal of the pancreas in domestic fowl and geese did not result in the development of diabetes. Further studies by others showed that this may be a common characteristic of birds. A species that deviates from this is horned owls which develop hyperglycemia and eventually die following pancreas removal. Prior studies have demonstrated that the chicken pancreas contains significantly more glucagon‐producing alpha cells compared to insulin‐producing beta cells. This is reflected in the observed low blood levels of insulin in chickens. We hypothesize that species differences may exist in the expression patterns of pancreatic islet cells in birds allowing some to persist after pancreatectomy, whereas other birds perish as a result of hyperglycemia. In the present study, we employed immunohistochemistry to compare the density of alpha and beta cells in pancreatic tissue from birds consuming different diets. Pancreatic tissue from Wistar rats was used for comparison to avian pancreatic tissue.