Small Islets Transplantation Superiority to Large Ones: Implications from Islet Microcirculation and Revascularization
Figure 5
Small islets with less intrinsic Ang II-AT1 tension are nourished by adequate microcirculation. (a) Immunostains of CD31 (brown) in islets in situ from the sectioned pancreas. Small islets are embedded in a more adequate microcirculation reflected by a darker vascular endothelial marker staining. Quantification of local AT1 receptor expression by western blot (b) and qRT-PCR. (c) AT1 receptor is significantly less intensively expressed in small islets at both mRNA () and protein () levels. (Protein from the kidney tissue was arranged as positive control.) (d) The qRT-PCR analysis of angiotensinogen. Small islets again expressed less angiotensinogen verified at mRNA levels ().
