Differential induction of NCAM and PAX6 by M2 versus M1 macrophages in organ cultures, and in select pancreatic epithelial subpopulations.

<p>A) E14–15.5 pancreatic epithelial cells, cultured for 3 days in medium alone (Ep) or in the presence of M1- (Ep+M1 macs) or M2- (Ep+M2 macs) macrophages, were immuno-stained for NCAM and the pan-leukocyte marker CD45. Flow cytometric contour plots of cells gated as CD45 negative (i.e. epithelial cells only) are shown, and percentages of NCAM⁺ cells are indicated in the right quadrants. Representative of n = 4 experiments. B) qPCR analysis of the indicated gene transcripts detected in macrophage/embryonic epithelium organ cultures. Values from each experimental condition were normalized to E-cadherin mRNA. Bars are mean ± SEM of n = 4 experiments; ** <i>p</i><0.01. C) Flow cytometric hystogram of epithelial cells from E14–E15.5 pancreata stained for E-cadherin (red) or IgG control (blue). The sorting windows used for the isolation of E-cadherin High, Intermediate and Low populations are shown. (D–E) qPCR analysis of E-cadherin, SOX9 and PAX6-specific transcripts expressed in the indicated sorted populations. Representative of 2 experiments, each from a pool of 28–30 embryos with values presented as mean ± SEM of triplicate samples.