Small Mouse Islets Are Deficient in Glucagon-Producing Alpha Cells but Rich in Somatostatin-Secreting Delta Cells

Table 1

Proportions of α- and δ-cells in small and big islets. Areas stained for glucagon and somatostatin in the largest cross section of small (<60 µm) and big (>100 µm) islets. The data refer to observations made in paraffin sections of pancreas and isolated islets. All values are given as means ± SEM. compared with small islets stained for glucagon in the pancreas. compared with small islets stained for somatostatin in the pancreas. compared with small isolated islets stained for glucagon. compared with small isolated islets stained for somatostatin.

	Islets in pancreas		Isolated islets
	Small islets	Big islets	Small islets	Big islets
Glucagon
Number of animals	5	5	6	4
Number of islets	52	65	52	44
Area stained for glucagon (%)	3.22 ± 0.51	8.61 ± 0.50	0.1	1.43 ± 0.28^†
Somatostatin
Number of animals	5	5	4	5
Number of islets	68	51	35	50
Area stained for somatostatin (%)	4.60 ± 0.48	3.37 ± 0.22^#	5.71 ± 0.58	3.54 ± 0.24