Journal
CELL METABOLISM
Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages 45-54Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2011.05.008
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Funding
- Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRIF)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) [R56DK084321, R01DK084321, F32DK083226, 5U01DK070460-07]
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
- Swedish Research Council
- Novo Nordisk Foundation
- Swedish Diabetes Association
- Berth von Kantzows Foundation
- Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
- VIBRANT [FP7-228933-2]
- Skandia Insurance Company, Ltd.
- Karolinska Institutet
- Ministry of Education, Science and Technology [CR31-2008-000-10105-0]
- Family Erling-Persson Foundation
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The autonomic nervous system regulates hormone secretion from the endocrine pancreas, the islets of Langerhans, thus impacting glucose metabolism. The parasympathetic and sympathetic nerves innervate the pancreatic islet, but the precise innervation patterns are unknown, particularly in human. Here we demonstrate that the innervation of human islets is different from that of mouse islets and does not conform to existing models of autonomic control of islet function. By visualizing axons in three dimensions and quantifying axonal densities and contacts within pancreatic islets, we found that, unlike mouse endocrine cells, human endocrine cells are sparsely contacted by autonomic axons. Few parasympathetic cholinergic axons penetrate the human islet, and the invading sympathetic fibers preferentially innervate smooth muscle cells of blood vessels located within the islet. Thus, rather than modulating endocrine cell function directly, sympathetic nerves may regulate hormone secretion in human islets by controlling local blood flow or by acting on islet regions located downstream.
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