Kinetics of pancreatic regeneration

Wuhan, China -

Currently there exist several pieces of evidence supporting endogenous pancreatic regenerative ability after injury. In a recent study (Liu et al. PDX-1 expression and proliferation of duct epithelial cells after partial pancreatectomy in rats. Hepatobiliary Pancreat Dis Int. 2007 Aug;6(4):424-9.) partial pancreatectomy was performed in rats and assessment of pancreatic stem cell proliferation and PDX-1 expression was assessed.

Ninety percent of the pancreas was excised in 4-5 week old rats and proliferation of pancreatic cells was assessed using BrdU staining, while PDX-1 expression was measured by Western Blot.

The researcher found:

1. Proliferation of large and small duct cells occurs 24 hours after pancreatectomy.

2. Proliferation of small ductal cells continues until day 5.

3. Proliferation of acinar cells peaks on day 5.

4. PDX-1 expression is high on days 2 and 3.

Now that kinetics of pancreatic proliferation post resection are known, it will be interesting to see whether administration of bone marrow stem cells exogenously can accelerate this.