title: On the origin of pancreatic endocrine cells, proliferation and neoplastic transformation.
abstract: In the adult mouse, pancreatic islets contain four islet cell types: alpha, beta, delta and pancreatic polypeptide cells that synthesize glucagon, insulin, somatostatin and pancreatic polypeptide, respectively. The early progenitor cells to the pancreatic islets are multipotential and coactivate all the islet-specific genes from the time they first appear. As development proceeds, expression of islet-specific hormones becomes restricted to the pattern of expression characteristic of mature islet cells. The phenotype of mature islet cells, however, is not stable since different environmental stimuli can induce the reappearance of embryonal traits in mature beta cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, State University of New York at Brooklyn 11203.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Teitelman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000473:pathology*; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology*; D051379:Mice; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology