In the buffalo pancreas, the small islets sometimes showed cords of
alpha cell crossing the centre of the islets (Lucini et al., 1998).
"People without diabetes can control blood glucose levels so tightly because we have both beta and
alpha cells working on it.
The molecule activates adult pancreatic beta and
alpha cell populations.
Conversely,
alpha cells secrete glucagon, a hormone that triggers tissues to release sugar into the bloodstream.
Positive expression result showed that the tumor originated from pancreatic
alpha cells. In addition, we were performed staining for carcinoembryonic antigen and Ki-67 protein.
As expected, some of the cells had similar gene-expression patterns to cells that produce hormones in the human pancreas: glucagon-producing
alpha cells and insulin-producing beta cells.
Pancreatic endocrine cells include all hormone-producing cells, such as insulin-producing beta cells and glucagon-producing
alpha cells, within the islet of Langerhans, whereas the duct cells are epithelial cells that line the ducts of the pancreas.
In a 68-year-old alcoholic, the number of beta cells decreased, and the
alpha cells increased (Fig.
The prevailing theory is that this decrease in the I:G ratio is caused by beta-cell apoptosis and transdifferentiation to
alpha cells. T2DM patients also have increased amyloid deposits, the result of increased islet amyloid polypeptide.
Glucagon is synthesised in the
alpha cells of the pancreas in response to low PGC.
This in turn causes enhanced glucagon production by
alpha cells in the pancreas.
In early 2017, in a paper published in the journal Cell, a European team reported that the antimalarial drug artemether could convert
alpha cells into functional beta cells.