Results
Title

Proliferating pancreatic beta-cells upregulate ALDH.

Authors

Liu, Yinglan; Jiang, Xiaoxin; Zeng, Yong; Zhou, Hui; Yang, Jing; Cao, Renxian

Abstract

High levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity have been regarded as a specific feature of progenitor cells and stem cells. Hence, as an indicator of ALDH activity, aldefluor fluorescence has been widely used for the identification and isolation of stem and progenitor cells. ALDH activity was recently detected in embryonic mouse pancreas, and specifically and exclusively in adult centroacinar and terminal duct cells, suggesting that these duct cells may harbor cells of endocrine and exocrine differentiation potential in the adult pancreas. Here, we report the presence of aldefluor beta-cells in a beta-cell proliferation model, partial pancreatectomy. The aldefluor beta-cells are essentially all positive for Ki-67 and expressed high levels of cell-cycle activators such as CyclinD1, CyclinD2, and CDK4, suggesting that they are mitotic cells. Our data thus reveal a potential change in ALDH activity of proliferating beta-cells, which provides a novel method for the isolation and analysis of proliferating beta-cells. Moreover, our data also suggest that aldefluor lineage-tracing is not a proper method for analyzing progenitor or stem activity in the adult pancreas.

Subjects

PANCREATIC beta cells; PANCREATECTOMY; ALDEHYDE dehydrogenase; PROGENITOR cells; EMBRYOLOGY; STEM cells

Publication

Histochemistry & Cell Biology, 2014, Vol 142, Issue 6, p685

ISSN

0948-6143

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1007/s00418-014-1248-4