Using pancreas tissue slices for in situ studies of islet of Langerhans and acinar cell biology.

Studies on the cellular function of the pancreas are typically performed in vitro on its isolated functional units, the endocrine islets of Langerhans and the exocrine acini. However, these approaches are hampered by preparation-induced changes of cell physiology and the lack of an intact surrounding. We present here a detailed protocol for the preparation of pancreas tissue slices.

Mouse pancreas tissue slice culture facilitates long-term studies of exocrine and endocrine cell physiology in situ.

Studies on pancreatic cell physiology rely on the investigation of exocrine and endocrine cells in vitro. Particularly, in the case of the exocrine tissue these studies have suffered from a reduced functional viability of acinar cells in culture. As a result not only investigations on dispersed acinar cells and isolated acini were limited in their potential, but also prolonged studies on pancreatic exocrine and endocrine cells in an intact pancreatic tissue environment were unfeasible.

NADPH oxidase and eNOS control cardiomyogenesis in mouse embryonic stem cells on ascorbic acid treatment.

Ascorbic acid (AA) increases cardiomyogenesis of embryonic stem (ES) cells. Herein we show that treatment of mouse ES cells with AA enhanced cardiac differentiation accompanied by an upregulation of the NADPH oxidase isoforms NOX2 and NOX4, phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and cyclic GMP (cGMP) formation, indicating that reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as nitric oxide (NO) may be involved in cardiomyogenesis. In whole mount embryoid bodies as well as isolated Flk-1-positive (Flk-1(+)) cardiovascular progenitor cells ROS elevation by AA was observed in early stages of differentiation (Days 4-7), and absent at Day 10.