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CHANGES IN THE ISLETS OF LANGERHANS IN PREGNANCY AND IN OTHER CONDITIONS
Author(s) -
Cramer W.
Publication year - 1933
Publication title -
quarterly journal of experimental physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1469-445X
pISSN - 0370-2901
DOI - 10.1113/expphysiol.1933.sp000590
Subject(s) - islet , pregnancy , endocrinology , diabetes mellitus , medicine , biology , genetics
The islets of Langerhans constitute a very plastic tissue which undergoes considerable changes in a variety of physiological conditions, even to the extent of the formation of new islets on the one hand, and the disappearance of existing islets on the other. The most consistent changes are found in pregnancy, where there is a new formation of islet tissue from the centro‐acinar cells. No clear evidence has been obtained of a transformation between islet cells and acinar cells in any of the conditions studied. Prolonged exposure to heat sometimes produces degenerative changes in the islets. The significance of these results in relation to the clinical features of diabetes mellitus is briefly discussed.