Volume 52 (3): 391-400, 2004 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Expression and Distribution of Somatostatin Receptor Subtypes in the Pancreatic Islets of Mice and Rats
Department of Medical Cell Biology (EL,RO,SS) and Medical Sciences (MS,ETJ), Uppsala, Sweden Correspondence to: Eva Ludvigsen, Dept. of Medical Cell Biology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, Box 571, SE-751 23, Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: Eva.Ludvigsen{at}medcellbiol.uu.se
Somatostatin acts on specific membrane receptors (sst15) to inhibit exocrine and endocrine functions. The aim was to investigate the distribution of sst15 in pancreatic islet cells in normal mice and rats. Pancreatic samples from five adult C57BL/6 mice and SpragueDawley rats were stained with antibodies against sst15 and insulin, glucagon, somatostatin, or pancreatic polypeptide (PP). A quantitative analysis of the co-localization was performed. All ssts were expressed in the pancreatic islets and co-localized on islet cells to various extents. A majority of the ß-cells expressed sst12 and sst5 in mouse islets, while 50% in the rat expressed sst15. The expression of sst15 on -cells did not differ much among species, with sst2 and sst5 being highly expressed. About 70% of the -cells expressed sst14 in the rat pancreas, whereas 50% of the islet cells expressed sst15 in the mouse. Furthermore, 60% of the PP-cells expressed sst15 in the mouse, while the rat islets had lower values. Co-expression with the four major islet hormones varies among species and sst subtypes. These similarities and differences are interesting and need further evaluation to elucidate their physiological role in islets. (J Histochem Cytochem 52:391400, 2004)
Key Words: somatostatin somatostatin receptors islet cells pancreatic islets C57BL/6 mouse SpragueDawley rat double fluorescence staining
SOMATOSTATIN is a polypeptide hormone that is widely distributed in neural and endocrine tissue. It exists in two biologically active forms, somatostatin-14 and the N-terminal extended version, somatostatin-28, which is produced by different cell types throughout the body. The first identified function for somatostatin was an inhibitory effect on GH secretion from the pituitary. Today, somatostatin is known to be a multifunctional peptide that inhibits the secretion of a large number of hormones, including insulin, glucagon, gastrin, and cholecystokinin. In addition to this action, several other functions have been attributed to somatostatin, such as inhibition of exocrine pancreatic secretion and gallbladder motility, and an action as a neurotransmitter (Reichlin 1983
The physiological activities of somatostatin are mediated by high-affinity interactions with a family of G-protein-coupled receptors. Thus far, five different somatostatin receptor (sst15) subtypes have been cloned (Yamada et al. 1992a
The cloning of sst genes made subtype-specific probes available, which allowed the investigation of sst expression at the mRNA level. The tissue distribution pattern of sst was studied in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues by RT-PCR in rat (Raulf et al. 1994
Recently developed antibodies selective for sst subtypes have been raised to investigate the expression of sst in various tissues (Raulf et al. 1994
Animals For this study, five adult male C57BL/6 mice (B&K Universal; Sollentuna, Sweden) and five adult male SpragueDawley rats (Biomedical Center; Uppsala, Sweden) were used. The animals had free access to water and pelleted food and were housed in a room with a 12-hr light/dark cycle. All experiments were approved by the local ethics committee at Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden).
Tissue Preparation The abdomen was immediately opened by a transverse incision, followed by resection of the pancreas, which was fixed in 10% buffered formalin (Merck; Darmstadt, Germany) overnight. The tissues were then stored in 70% ethanol until they were embedded in paraffin. Sections 5 µm thick were cut and attached to Polysine glass slides (MenzelGläser; Braunschweig, Germany).
Development of Antibodies Against Different ssts The chosen sequence of peptides used to generate a selective antibody against sst1 was identical to both the mouse and the rat receptor sequence. The peptide used for sst2 differed by one amino acid compared to the mouse and two compared to the rat. These amino acids are located in the middle of the peptide and were not expected to interfere with the crossreactivity of the antibody. The peptide used to generate the sst3 differed by four amino acids from humans compared to the rat and mouse sequences. These amino acids are also located to a part of the peptide that was not expected to interfere with the crossreactivity of the antibody. In the sst4 peptide sequence there is an insertion of nine amino acids in the middle of the peptide sequence in both rats and mice. However, the C-terminal is identical with the human receptor sequence, and the sst4 antibody was therefore expected to crossreact with rat and mouse tissues. The peptide sequence for sst5 antibody production differed by one amino acid in both the mouse and rat compared to the human sequence. In this case, a lysine residue has been replaced by an arginine residue and should therefore not interfere with the crossreactivity of the antibody.
Before immunization the peptides were coupled to a carrier protein. Two mg peptide and 20 mg bovine serum albumin (BSA; ICN Biomedicals, Costa Mesa, CA) or keyhole limpet hemocyanogen were dissolved in a 50 mmol/liter sodium phosphate buffer at pH 7.4 containing 150 mmol/liter NaCl. Coupling was then induced by addition of 90 µl glutaraldehyde. The resulting complexes were injected into New Zealand White rabbits, using the intradermal injection technique to produce polyclonal antibodies (Vaitukaitis et al. 1971
Morphological Examinations
Double Immunofluorescence Staining of sst15 and Islet Cells
Staining Specificity
Light Microscopic Evaluation
Evaluation of Immunofluorescence Pictures from a Zeiss Axiocam camera (Carl Zeiss; Oberkochen, Germany) of each pancreatic islet, using both filters, were merged together with Adobe PhotoShop 7.0 software (Adobe; San Jose, CA), in which a yellow color indicated co-expression of sst subtype with any of the four islet hormones tested in this study. The results are expressed as a percentage of sst-positive cells in relation to the total number of the respective islet cell type in a specific pancreatic islet.
Statistical Analysis
Animals The mice (n=5) allocated to this study weighed 30 g and had a blood glucose concentration of 8.8 ± 0.1 mmol/liter, whereas the rats (n=5) weighed 300 g and their blood glucose concentration was 5.9 ± 0.6 mmol/liter.
Distribution of ssts in the Islets of Langerhans
In both mice and rats we found a homogenous staining for sst1 of the entire islet profiles, but the staining was more intense in mice. The staining intensity was essentially similar in the islet center and periphery. The staining for sst2 was more pronounced in the periphery of the islets compared to the center in both mice and rats. One rat was negative for sst2, and in some small islets there was no difference in staining intensity between the central and the peripheral part of the islet. Moreover, acinar cells were frequently stained for sst2 in both mice and rats. The pancreatic islets of all rats were positive for sst3, whereas in two mice we could not detect any staining for sst3. Furthermore, in all sst3-positive islets we observed a homogenous localization of sst3 in the entire islet. In two mice we did not detect any staining for sst4 in the islets of Langerhans, and in the other three mice the entire islet had weak positive staining for sst4. However, in rats we observed a different staining pattern, with intense staining of the periphery of the islets and faint or no staining of the central parts of the islets. One rat was negative for sst4. In mice we found more intense staining for sst5 compared to rats. The staining appearance was similar in all animals, with more pronounced staining in the periphery of the islets. In some small islets the entire islet had homogenous staining for sst5. Figure 2 shows the control staining from a representative rat pancreas. The left column shows the pancreatic sections normally stained with all five sst antibodies (Figures 2A2E). When we preincubated the sst-specific antibodies with the peptides used for immunization, the staining for all receptors in both mice and rats was completely blocked (Figures 2F2J).
Immunofluorescence staining for sst15 and Islet Cells ß-Cells and sst15 Figures 3A3O show Cy3-conjugated immunofluorescence distribution of sst15 (red, Figures 3A3E) in a representative islet sample of a mouse. ß-Cells were identified in the same islet by Cy2-conjugated immunofluorescence with insulin antibody (green, Figures 3F3J). Overlapping ssts and ß-cells revealed co-expression of sst15 with insulin (yellow, Figures 3K3O). Figure 5 shows the quantitative analysis of the pancreatic islet with insulin and sst15, in which the results from the mouse are represented by black bars and the rat by white bars. It shows that sst1, sst2, and sst5 were co-expressed in a majority of all insulin-positive cells in the pancreatic islets of the mouse. However, in the pancreatic islets of the rat, sst1, sst2, and sst5 were expressed only in about half of all ß-cells. The fraction co-localization of sst3- and insulin-positive cells did not significantly differ between the species. Moreover, sst4 was expressed on ß-cells to almost the same degree in both mice and rats.
-Cells and sst15Figures 4A4E show representative mouse islet sections processed for co-expression of sst15 with glucagon, in which the co-localization yields a yellow color. As expected, the -cells were fewer than the ß-cells and the cells were distributed mostly in the periphery of the islet. Quantitative analysis of sst1 and sst5 in mouse -cells shown in Figure 6
demonstrated lower values compared to rat -cells. The co-localization of the other ssts was similar in mouse and rat islets, with sst2 and sst5 being strongly co-expressed to about 70%, while sst3 and sst4 were only expressed in close to 20% of the -cells in both species. A slight significant difference was found for sst5 between the species.
-Cells and sst15Figures 4F4J show the results of sst15 co-expressed with endogenous somatostatin in representative islet sections of a rat. The somatostatin cells were found mostly around the mantle zone of the islet, and to a lesser degree than both the ß- and the -cells. As shown in Figure 7
, the extent of co-localization of sst1 on somatostatin-positive cells in mouse and rat islets was almost the same. Comparing the two species, however, we found that the rat pancreas had a somewhat stronger co-localization of sst3 and sst4 than the mouse. As for sst1, the co-localization of sst2 and sst5 on -cells was similar in both mouse and rat islets.
PP-Cells and sst15 Figure 4 shows the co-expression of sst15 with PP-cells in a representative pancreatic islet of a rat (Figures 4K4O). PP-Cells were the least abundant islet cell type in this study, and were identified as a sparse population of cells distributed in the mantle zone of the islet. Figure 8 summarizes the quantitative analysis of the sst together with PP-cells in mouse and rat. All five ssts were expressed in almost the same numbers and in a majority of PP-positive cells in mouse islets, whereas the co-localization of sst in the rat was only expressed in about 15% for all five subtypes.
IHC studies of sst subtype expression in various tissues of mouse and rat have recently been performed (Hunyady et al. 1997
Recent studies have reported that sst subtypes are expressed in human pancreatic islets (Kumar et al. 1999 All rat islet cells stained positive for sst3, and in some mice the staining pattern was similar, whereas other mice did not express sst3 in their islets. The function of sst3 in pancreatic islets is presently unknown and needs further investigation.
By using RT-PCR analysis, Raulf et al. (1994)
In comparing the amount of co-localization of ssts with the various islet cell types, we found intriguing differences between the two species. A high percentage of ß-cells expressed sst1, sst2, and sst5 in mouse islets. In contrast, less than half of the ß-cells expressed those receptors in the rat. Several reports have demonstrated that inhibition of insulin secretion is mediated via sst5 in rat and mouse (Strowski et al. 2000
Mouse PP-cells had a much higher degree of sst25-positive cells in islets compared to the rat. On the other hand, in the somatostatin-positive cells, about 75% of the cells co-expressed sst34 in the rat islet and only about 55% in the mouse. We found that the sst4 was the receptor subtype showing the most extensive expression in
The most "conserved" islet cell type was the
By using double immunofluorescence staining Mitra et al. (1999) In summary, the present investigation demonstrates that all sst subtypes are expressed in islets of Langerhans of mice and rats. We report staining patterns that are in line with and partly different from those previously reported for human islets. In addition, some variations in expression patterns for sst subtypes between mice and rats were seen, which may reflect a difference in response to somatostatin in islet cells of the two species. In addition, the co-expressions of sst15 with the four major islet cell types varied among individual animals. These similarities and differences are interesting and need further evaluation to understand the functional role of the somatostatin receptors in islet cell physiology.
Supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (72X-8273), the Swedish Diabetes Association, the Family Ernfors Fund, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Wallenberg Fund, the Novo Nordisk Fund, and the Swedish Society for Medical Research. The technical expertise of Eva Törnelius and Ing-Britt Hallgren is gratefully acknowledged. The chicken anti-glucagon antibody was a kind gift from Assoc Prof Anders Larsson (Department of Medical Sciences, University Hospital; Uppsala, Sweden).
1 These authors contributed equally to this work. Received for publication May 23, 2003; accepted October 10, 2003
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