Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Video Abstracts
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • Pancreatic Cancer (Jul 2025)
    • Complement Biology and Therapeutics (May 2025)
    • Evolving insights into MASLD and MASH pathogenesis and treatment (Apr 2025)
    • Microbiome in Health and Disease (Feb 2025)
    • Substance Use Disorders (Oct 2024)
    • Clonal Hematopoiesis (Oct 2024)
    • Sex Differences in Medicine (Sep 2024)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • In-Press Preview
    • Clinical Research and Public Health
    • Research Letters
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Editorials
    • Commentaries
    • Editor's notes
    • Reviews
    • Viewpoints
    • 100th anniversary
    • Top read articles

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Video Abstracts
  • In-Press Preview
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Research Letters
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Editorials
  • Commentaries
  • Editor's notes
  • Reviews
  • Viewpoints
  • 100th anniversary
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
Top
  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a comment
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need help? Email the journal
  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article

Advertisement

Research Article Free access | 10.1172/JCI2769

Hypoplasia of pancreatic islets in transgenic mice expressing activin receptor mutants.

T Yamaoka, C Idehara, M Yano, T Matsushita, T Yamada, S Ii, M Moritani, J Hata, H Sugino, S Noji, and M Itakura

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Yamaoka, T. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Idehara, C. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Yano, M. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Matsushita, T. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Yamada, T. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Ii, S. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Moritani, M. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Hata, J. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Sugino, H. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Noji, S. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Otsuka Department of Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, School of Medicine, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima-city, 770, Japan. yamaoka@nutr.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

Find articles by Itakura, M. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Published July 15, 1998 - More info

Published in Volume 102, Issue 2 on July 15, 1998
J Clin Invest. 1998;102(2):294–301. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI2769.
© 1998 The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Published July 15, 1998 - Version history
View PDF
Abstract

Activin, a member of the TGF-beta superfamily, regulates the growth and differentiation of a variety of cell types. Based on the expression of activin in pancreatic rudiments of rat embryos and stimulation of insulin secretion from adult rat pancreatic islets by activin, activin is implicated in the development and function of islets. To examine the significance of activin signaling in the fetal and postnatal development of islets, transgenic mice expressing a dominant negative form of activin receptor (dn-ActR) or a constitutively active form of activin receptor (ActR-T206D) in islets were generated together with the transgenic mice expressing intact activin receptor (intact ActR) as a negative control. Transgenic mice with both dn-ActR and ActR-T206D showed lower survival rates, smaller islet area, and lower insulin content in the whole pancreas with impaired glucose tolerance when compared with transgenic mice with intact ActR or littermates, but they showed the same alpha cell/beta cell ratios as their littermates. In addition to islet hypoplasia, the insulin response to glucose was severely impaired in dn-ActR transgenic mice. It is suggested that a precisely regulated intensity of activin signaling is necessary for the normal development of islets at the stage before differentiation into alpha and beta cells, and that activin plays a role in the postnatal functional maturation of islet beta cells.

Version history
  • Version 1 (July 15, 1998): No description

Article tools

  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a comment
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need help? Email the journal

Metrics

  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article

Go to

  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
Advertisement
Advertisement

Copyright © 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts