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Updated: May 23, 2026

Isolating and Analyzing Cells of the Pancreas Mesenchyme by Flow Cytometry
Published on: January 28, 2017
VAMP8/endobrevin is a critical factor for the homotypic granule growth in pancreatic acinar cells
Ilan Hammel1, Cheng-Chun Wang, Wanjin Hong
1Department of Pathology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. ilanh@patholog.tau.ac.il
Abstract:
The delivery of newly-formed secretory content to the granule inventory occurs through direct fusion of recently formed granules and mature granules. The introduction of knockout mice allowed us to investigate the characteristics of the delivery process and to determine the core protein machinery required for granule growth. The SNARE machinery mediates membrane fusion and is essential for the granule lifecycle. In the current work, we use VAMP8 knockout mice to show that the SNARE machinery plays a critical role in the process of granule homotypic fusion. Consistent with this, the mutated mouse pancreatic acinar secretory granules are significantly smaller compared to the control group, demonstrating few granule profiles that might be the result of homotypic fusion.
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