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Aim During pregnancy, the maternal beta-cell mass is increased in order to adapt to the physiological changes in insulin demand. Lactogenic hormones stimulate rodent beta-cell attachment and proliferation in vitro. The aim of this study was to identify adhesion molecules involved in expansion of the beta-cell mass during pregnancy in the rat.Methods Quantitative RT-PCR was used to evaluate the expression of several integrins and laminins in isolated neonatal rat islets in response to growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) treatment. Double-immunofluorescence staining of rat pancreas was used to localize the expression of integrin alpha 6 beta 1. beta-cell proliferation was evaluated by incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). The role of STAT5 phosphorylation was tested by addition of STAT5 mutants.Results We found that the mRNA level of integrin-alpha 6A, was upregulated 2.5-fold by PRL or GH. During pregnancy, a biphasic 3.4-4.5-fold increase of integrin-alpha 6A and B mRNA levels was detected. A disintegrin peptide (DP) reduced the hormone-stimulated mitotic activity in neonatal rat beta-cells from 2.9 +/- 0.4-fold to 1.3 +/- 0.3-fold. The hormone-induced expression of alpha 6 beta 1 integrin was shown to be mediated via STAT5 as a dominant negative (DN) mutant prevented and a constitutive active (CA) mutant augmented the hGH-stimulated expression. The DP was found to inhibit hGH-induced transactivation of the PRL receptor promoter 1A and reduce the hGH-induced phosphorylation of STAT5.Conclusion These results show that integrin-alpha 6 in beta-cells is upregulated by lactogenic hormones and is required but not sufficient for the expansion of the beta-cell mass in pregnancy in the rat, which may have implications for the understanding and treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus.

High-quality patient samples are required for reliable immunohistochemistry test outcomes that provide a significant benefit for patient care. Among the preanalytic variables in tissue handling, tissue thickness is thought to be easily controlled; however, whether the thickness of the tissue effects the staining intensity for antibody immunohistochemistry has not been quantitatively demonstrated. To investigate, we cut multiblock tissue sections of tonsil, liver, and kidney at 2, 4, 6, and 8 μm thicknesses. Interferometry measurements of the sectioned paraffin showed a