Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 14, 2026
Surgical Injury to the Mouse Pancreas through Ligation of the Pancreatic Duct as a Model for Endocrine and Exocrine Reprogramming and Proliferation
Published on: August 7, 2015
Expression of pancreatic endocrine markers by prolactin-treated rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells
P González1, T M Santos, A Calil
1Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Curitiba, Curitiba.
Background:
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are an attractive source for generation of cells with beta-cell properties. Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of prolactin to induce an increase in beta-cell mass and maturation, which suggests beneficial effects of its use in MSC differentiation protocols.
Objective:
To evaluate the expression of endocrine differentiation markers in rat MSCs treated in vitro with prolactin.
Methods:
Mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow of Wistar rats were isolated, expanded, and characterized. Differentiation of MSCs was induced in medium containing 23 mmol/L of glucose, and nicotinamide, 2-mercaptoethanol, and exendin-4, in the presence or absence of 500 ng/mL of rat recombinant prolactin. Expression of endocrine markers and prolactin receptor genes was evaluated using real-time polymerase chain reaction, and compared between culture stages and presence vs absence of prolactin in the culture medium. Expression of insulin, somatostatin, glucagon, and pancreatic and duodenal homeobox 1 was also evaluated at immunofluorescence microscopy.
Results:
Isolated cells were mostly MSCs, as confirmed at fluorescent-activated cell sorting and cytochemistry. Pax6, Ngn-3, Isl1, NeuroD1, Nkx2.2, and Nkx6.1 exhibited varied expression during culture stages. The long form of the prolactin receptor messenger RNA was induced in prolactin-treated cultures (P < .05). The somatostatin gene was induced in early stages of differentiation (P < .05), and its expression was induced by prolactin, as confirmed using immunofluorescence.
Conclusion:
Culture of rat bone marrow MSCs in differentiation medium induces expression of pancreatic endocrine-specific genes, and somatostatin and prolactin receptor expression was also induced by prolactin.
