Tissue surface tensions guide in vitro self‐assembly of rodent pancreatic islet cells

The organization of endocrine cells in pancreatic islets is established through a series of morphogenetic events involving cell sorting, migration, and re‐aggregation processes for which intercellular adhesion is thought to play a central role. In animals, these morphogenetic events result in an isl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental dynamics 2007-08, Vol.236 (8), p.2039-2049
Main Authors: Jia, Dongxuan, Dajusta, Daniel, Foty, Ramsey A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Cadherins - genetics
Cadherins - pharmacology
Cell Adhesion
Cell Line
cell sorting
Coculture Techniques
differential adhesion
Islets of Langerhans - cytology
Mice
Models, Biological
Morphogenesis
pancreatic islets
Surface Tension
tissue surface tensiometry
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Summary:The organization of endocrine cells in pancreatic islets is established through a series of morphogenetic events involving cell sorting, migration, and re‐aggregation processes for which intercellular adhesion is thought to play a central role. In animals, these morphogenetic events result in an islet topology in which insulin‐secreting cells form the core, while glucagon, somatostatin, and pancreatic polypeptide‐secreting cells segregate to the periphery. Isolated pancreatic islet cells self‐assemble in vitro into pseudoislets with the same cell type organization as native islets. It is widely held that differential adhesion between cells of the pancreatic islets generates this specific topology. However, this differential adhesion has never been rigorously quantified. In this manuscript, we use tissue surface tensiometry to measure the cohesivity of spherical aggregates from three immortalized mouse pancreatic islet cell lines. We show that, as predicted by the differential adhesion hypothesis, aggregates of the internally segregating INS‐1 and MIN6 beta‐cell lines are substantially more cohesive than those of the externally segregating α‐TC line. Furthermore, we show that forced overexpression of P‐cadherin by α‐TC cells significantly perturbs the sorting process. Collectively, the data indicate that differential adhesion can drive the in vitro organization of immortalized rodent pancreatic islet cells. Developmental Dynamics 236:2039–2049, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ISSN:1058-8388
1097-0177
DOI:10.1002/dvdy.21207