Determination of secretory granule maturation times in pancreatic islet β-cells by serial block-face electron microscopy.

It is shown how serial block-face electron microscopy (SBEM) of insulin-secreting β-cells in wild-type mouse pancreatic islets of Langerhans can be used to determine maturation times of secretory granules. Although SBEM captures the β-cell structure at a snapshot in time, the observed ultrastructure can be considered representative of a dynamic equilibrium state of the cells since the pancreatic islets are maintained in culture in approximate homeostasis. It was found that 7.

Luciferase-Based Detection of Antibodies for the Diagnosis of HPV-Associated Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Point-of-care tests are needed for the screening of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and other malignancies. Luciferase immunoprecipitation systems (LIPS), employing light-emitting proteins, were used to examine serum antibodies against several cancer-associated targets in blood donor controls and subjects with colon cancer (CC) and HNSCC. The assessment of antibodies against the wild type p53 tumor antigen showed that approximately 25% of the CC and 20% of the HNSCC patients were seropositive.

Insulinoma-Associated-1: From Neuroendocrine Tumor Marker to Cancer Therapeutics.

Insulinoma-associated-1 (IA-1 or INSM1) encodes a zinc-finger transcription factor, which was isolated from a human insulinoma subtraction library, with specific expression patterns, predominantly in developing neuroendocrine tissues and tumors. INSM1 is key in early pancreatic endocrine, sympatho-adrenal lineage, and pan-neurogenic precursor development. gene ablation results in impairment of pancreatic β cells, catecholamine biosynthesis, and basal progenitor development during mammalian neocortex maturation.

Targeted deletion of Insm2 in mice result in reduced insulin secretion and glucose intolerance.

Background: Neurogenin3 (Ngn3) and neurogenic differentiation 1 (NeuroD1), two crucial transcriptional factors involved in human diabetes (OMIM: 601724) and islet development, have been previously found to directly target to the E-boxes of the insulinoma-associated 2 (Insm2) gene promoter, thereby activating the expression of Insm2 in insulin-secretion cells. However, little is known about the function of Insm2 in pancreatic islets and glucose metabolisms.

Methods: Homozygous Insm2 mice were generated by using the CRISPR-Cas9 method.

Polyreactive IgM initiates complement activation by PF4/heparin complexes through the classical pathway.

The mechanisms by which exposure to heparin initiates antibody responses in many, if not most, recipients are poorly understood. We recently demonstrated that antigenic platelet factor 4 (PF4)/heparin complexes activate complement in plasma and bind to B cells. Here, we describe how this process is initiated.