Pancreatic acinar cells are highly specialized exocrine factories that produce copious
amounts of digestive enzymes for intestinal digestion. Acinar cells arise from a population of
multipotent progenitor cells (MPCs) that also produce ductal cells, which channel the acinar
secretions to the intestine, and endocrine cells, which populate the islets of Langerhans.
During a final stage of differentiation, acinar cells acquire powerful systems for maintaining
cellular homeostasis in the face of great demands for protein synthesis and energy …