Pancreas, endocrine role

The pancreas is a major exocrine organ that synthesizes and secretes digestive enzymes. It also produces and secretes NaHCOj to neutralize the acidic effluent from the stomach. The pancreas also has an important endocrine role because it synthesizes and secretes the hormones insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin into the bloodstream from cells within its islets of Langerhans. 

The pancreas is an exocrine gland and an endocrine gland. The exocrine tissue produces a bicarbonate solution and digestive enzymes. These substances are transported to the small intestine where they play a role in the chemical digestion of food. These functions are fully discussed in Chapter 18 on the digestive system. 

The pancreas is a large exocrine organ that has a role in the digestion of food as well as an endocrine organ which secretes insnUn, somatostatin, and glncagon. 

H)2D2 may play a role in tissues other than those involved in calcium transport. In particular, Stumpf and coworkers have shown that 1,25-(0H)2D2 specifically localizes in the nuclei of skin cells, especially the malpighlan layerin endocrine cells of the stomach in the islet cells of the pancreas parathyroid gland cells 3 certain cells of the pituitary,91 and of the brain in addition to the expected target sites, such as osteoblasts, osteocytes, intestinal... 

Microvascular In addition to analysis of endocrine and exocrine cell systems in the pancreas, additional cell types may play a role in the development of a drug candidate-induced pancreatic toxicity. The dense... 

In vitro, the capillary endothelial cells of the pancreas are still attached to the outer rim of whole islets postisolation and, with conditioned medium, may be coaxed to proliferate outward onto extracellular matrix-coated plastic plates for further mechanistic studies and functional analyses. The isolated capillary endothelial cells can be characterized by examining a-1 proteinase inhibitor and nephrin expression via immunocytochemistry or flow cytometry (Zanone et al., 2008). Not only do these endothelial cells play a role in drug candidate-induced effects on insulin secretion and glucose regulation of islets, but they also act as the regulators of leukocyte recruitment into the islets. The pancreatic microvasculature is therefore likely to play a role in the altered physiology of the endocrine and exocrine pancreas if affected by drug candidate exposure. 

Poisner and Cooke (1975) studied the role of microtubules in the release of chromaffin granules from the adrenal medulla. As in the endocrine pancreas, both colchicine and vinblastine affected microtubules and thus inhibited the release of secretory granules. Of further... 

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