Reduced β-cell mass, enhanced PCNA+ β- and α-cells and altered expression of insulin signaling and cell adhesion proteins in pancreas from patients with T2DM.

<p>Representative confocal mages of pancreas sections from type 2 diabetic and control pancreas showing (a) quantification of islet cell number with immunostaining for insulin (red), glucagon (blue) and somatostatin (red); PCNA+ cells co-staining with (b) insulin or glucagons (red) and PCNA (green) and (c) CK19 (green), PCNA (red) and insulin (blue); (d) alterations in expression of β-catenin with immunstaining for PCNA (blue), β-catenin (green), insulin (red), light blue in the merged image indicates co-localization between β-catenin and PCNA; (e) alterations in E-cadherin with immunostaining for PCNA (blue), E-cadherin (green) and insulin (red) and the merged image in yellow; Immunostaining of pancreas sections for (f) insulin receptor α-subunit (green), insulin (red) and glucagon (blue); (g) BAD (green) and insulin (red) and merged image in yellow; (h) phospho-BAD (green), insulin (red) and merged image in yellow, and (i) the cell-cycle inhibitor p27-kip1 (green), insulin (red) and glucagon (blue), (<i>n</i> = 7). Yellow in merged images indicates co-localization between insulin staining and insulin signalling proteins. Immunostaining was performed as described in Methods. Bars = 50 µm. *, p<0.05 controls vs T2D.