Endocrine Abstracts

The formation of the vertebrate pancreas is a complex process that typifies the basic steps of embryonic development. It involves the establishment of competence, specification, signaling from neighboring tissues, morphogenesis, and the elaboration of tissue-specific genetic networks. A full analysis of this multistep process will help us to understand classic principles of embryonic development. Furthermore, this will provide the blueprint for experimental programming of panc...

Endocrine cells of the intestine, pancreas and adrenal gland develop from the endoderm and neural crest, respectively. Despite their different developmental origins, we discovered that these distinct endocrine cells rely on a common transcription factor, Insm1, that controls their development. The Insm1 (insulinoma-associated 1, IA-1) gene encodes a zinc-finger factor that was discovered in an insulinoma cDNA library. We show that pancreatic and intestinal endocrine cells as w...

Hyperinsulinism causes recurrent and severe hypoglycaemia in the newborn, infancy and childhood period. Although the condition is more common in the newborn period it can present even adults can present with late onset hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia not due to an insulinoma (noninsulinoma pancreatogenous hypoglycemia). Hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia encompasses a heterogeneous group of disorders with respect to clinical presentation, pancreatic histology and molecular biolog...

The localization of the islets of Langerhans within exocrine pancreatic tissue is suggestive of an interdependency and cross-talk between these two cell populations, in their normal as well as in their abnormal function. Disturbances in glucose metabolism often accompany diseases of the exocrine pancreas, whereas exocrine dysfunction is commonly seen in diabetes patients. Recently, we have described a novel syndrome of exocrine and endocrine pancreatic dysfunction caused by mu...