Visualization of important disease-driving tissues in their native morphological state, such as the pancreas, given its importance in glucose homeostasis and diabetes, provides critical insight into the etiology and progression of disease and our understanding of how cellular changes impact disease severity. Numerous challenges to maintaining tissue morphology exist when one attempts to preserve or to recreate such tissues for histological evaluation. We have overcome many of these challenges and have developed new methods for visualizing the whole murine pancreas and single islets of Langerhans in an effort to gain a better understanding of how islet cell volume, spatial distribution, and vascularization are altered as diabetes progresses. These methods are readily adaptable without requirement for costly specialized equipment, such as magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, or computed tomography, and can be used to provide additional robust analysis of diabetes susceptibility in mouse models of Type 1 and Type II diabetes. 相似文献
Centrosomes nucleate microtubules and serve as poles of the mitotic spindle. Centrioles are a core component of centrosomes and duplicate once per cell cycle. We previously identified epsilon-tubulin as a new member of the tubulin superfamily that localizes asymmetrically to the two centrosomes after duplication. We show that recruitment of epsilon-tubulin to the new centrosome can only occur after exit from S phase and that epsilon-tubulin is associated with the sub-distal appendages of mature centrioles. Xenopus laevis epsilon-tubulin was cloned and shown to be similar to human epsilon-tubulin in both sequence and localization. Depletion of epsilon-tubulin from Xenopus egg extracts blocks centriole duplication in S phase and formation of organized centrosome-independent microtubule asters in M phase. We conclude that epsilon-tubulin is a component of the sub-distal appendages of the centriole, explaining its asymmetric localization to old and new centrosomes, and that epsilon-tubulin is required for centriole duplication and organization of the pericentriolar material. 相似文献
ADP ribosylation factor (ARF) is a ubiquitous 21-kDa GTP-binding protein in eucaryotes. ARF was first identified in animal cells as the protein factor required for the efficient ADP-ribosylation of the mammalian G protein Gs by cholera toxin in vitro. A gene (ARF1) encoding a protein homologous to mammalian ARF was recently cloned from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sewell and Kahn, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 85:4620-4624, 1988). We have found a second gene encoding ARF in S. cerevisiae, ARF2. The two ARF genes are within 28 centimorgans of each other on chromosome IV, and the proteins encoded by them are 96% identical. Disruption of ARF1 causes slow growth, cold sensitivity, and sensitivity to normally sublethal concentrations of fluoride ion in the medium. Disruption of ARF2 causes no detectable phenotype. Disruption of both genes is lethal; thus, ARF is essential for mitotic growth. The ARF1 and ARF2 proteins are functionally homologous, and the phenotypic differences between mutations in the two genes can be accounted for by the level of expression; ARF1 produces approximately 90% of total ARF. Among revertants of the fluoride sensitivity of an arf1 null mutation were ARF1-ARF2 fusion genes created by a gene conversion event in which the deleted ARF1 sequences were repaired by recombination with ARF2. 相似文献