title: A conserved rule for pancreatic islet organization.
abstract: Morphogenesis, spontaneous formation of organism structure, is essential for life. In the pancreas, endocrine α, β, and δ cells are clustered to form islets of Langerhans, the critical micro-organ for glucose homeostasis. The spatial organization of endocrine cells in islets looks different between species. Based on the three-dimensional positions of individual cells in islets, we computationally inferred the relative attractions between cell types, and found that the attractions between homotypic cells were slightly, but significantly, stronger than the attractions between heterotypic cells commonly in mouse, pig, and human islets. The difference between α-β cell attraction and β-β cell attraction was minimal in human islets, maximizing the plasticity of islet structures. Our result suggests that although the cellular composition and attractions of pancreatic endocrine cells are quantitatively different between species, the physical mechanism of islet morphogenesis may be evolutionarily conserved.
authors.affiliation: Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, Pohang, Korea.
authors.forename: Danh-Tai
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Hoang
authors.affiliation: Meiji University International Institute for Bio-Resource Research, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Hitomi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsunari
authors.affiliation: Meiji University International Institute for Bio-Resource Research, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagaya
authors.affiliation: Meiji University International Institute for Bio-Resource Research, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States of America.
authors.forename: J Michael
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Millis
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States of America.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Witkowski
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biological Modeling, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States of America.
authors.forename: Vipul
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Periwal
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States of America.
authors.forename: Manami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.affiliation: Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, Pohang, Korea; Department of Physics, POSTECH, Pohang, Korea.
authors.forename: Junghyo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jo
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology*; D051379:Mice; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009024:Morphogenesis; D013552:Swine