Endocrinology, Vol 110, 2189-2191, Copyright © 1982 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

Glicentin precedes glucagon in the developing human pancreas

Y Stefan, M Ravazzola, S Grasso, A Perrelet and L Orci

A quantitative evaluation of immunofluorescence elicited by anti- insulin, anti-glucagon, anti-glicentin, anti-somatostatin and anti- pancreatic polypeptide antisera has been carried out in the pancreas of 5 human fetuses from 3.0 to 9.6 cm C.R. The data obtained indicate that while insulin and somatostatin-containing cells are approximately in similar proportions with respect to the other endocrine cell types in the five fetuses studied, the glucagon and glicentin immunoreactive cells and the pancreatic polypeptide cells are not : a) pancreatic polypeptide-containing cells increase in proportion as fetuses grow older; b) the youngest fetuses (3.0 to 4.3 cm C.R.) contain a high proportion of cells reacting to anti-glicentin antiserum only (GLI- cells) and a small proportion of cells stained both with the anti- glicentin and anti-glucagon antisera (GLI/GLU-cells). However, the latter cell type which stains similarly as the postnatal and adult pancreatic A-cell (GLI-cells are not detectable in the postnatal and adult pancreas) increases iin proportion in older fetuses, while the proportion of GLI-cells decrease. The data suggest that the definitive adult-type A-cell matures from a GLI-cell type which is not able to convert glucagon precursors GLI(s) into glucagon.