Publications by authors named "H A Zook"

Article Synopsis
  • Islet transplantation is a promising treatment for type 1 diabetes, but its success relies on rapid evaluation of islet health, as they can degrade quickly post-isolation.
  • The study tested a new method called single-cell Western blotting (scWestern) for quickly assessing protein markers in islet cells, comparing it with traditional methods.
  • The findings showed that while alpha and beta cell compositions aligned well between both methods, delta cells did not, and scWestern revealed the presence of rare double-hormonal cells in islets, which could provide valuable insights for improving transplantation outcomes.
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Context: Self-measured blood pressure monitoring (SMBP) with clinical support is effective at reducing blood pressure for people with hypertension. Although strengths and challenges around SMBP are well-documented, few studies describe the complexities of real-world implementation of SMBP with clinical support in the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) setting.

Program: Between 2019 and 2023, the Ohio Department of Health funded the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers to manage a multiyear quality improvement (QI) project with 21 FQHCs.

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Exocrine-to-endocrine cross talk in the pancreas is crucial to maintain β-cell function. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this cross talk are largely undefined. Trefoil factor 2 (Tff2) is a secreted factor known to promote the proliferation of β-cells in vitro, but its physiological role in vivo in the pancreas is unknown.

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Ductal progenitor-like cells are a sub-population of ductal cells in the adult human pancreas that have the potential to contribute to regenerative medicine. However, the microenvironmental cues that regulate their activation are poorly understood. Here, we establish a 3-dimensional suspension culture system containing six defined soluble factors in which primary human ductal progenitor-like and ductal non-progenitor cells survive but do not proliferate.

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Pancreatic ductal progenitor cells have been proposed to contribute to adult tissue maintenance and regeneration after injury, but the identity of such ductal cells remains elusive. Here, from adult mice, we identify a near homogenous population of ductal progenitor-like clusters, with an average of 8 cells per cluster. They are a rare subpopulation, about 0.

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