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Pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the RINm5F cell line

Phenotypic heterogeneity is a striking feature of the pancreatic islet cell lines (RIN and MSL) derived from a rat islet cell tumour (Chick et al., 1977) which may therefore be suitable for the study of islet cell differentiation in vitro. In the present study, the RINm5F cell line (Oie ~-, 1983) wa...

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Main Author: Van der Merwe, Elizabeth Lael
Other Authors: Dr S.H. Kidson and Prof B.B. Rawdon
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Division of Cell Biology 2024
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access_status_str Open Access
author Van der Merwe, Elizabeth Lael
author2 Dr S.H. Kidson and Prof B.B. Rawdon
author_browse Dr S.H. Kidson and Prof B.B. Rawdon
Van der Merwe, Elizabeth Lael
author_facet Dr S.H. Kidson and Prof B.B. Rawdon
Van der Merwe, Elizabeth Lael
author_sort Van der Merwe, Elizabeth Lael
collection Thesis
description Phenotypic heterogeneity is a striking feature of the pancreatic islet cell lines (RIN and MSL) derived from a rat islet cell tumour (Chick et al., 1977) which may therefore be suitable for the study of islet cell differentiation in vitro. In the present study, the RINm5F cell line (Oie ~-, 1983) was investigated to determine whether or not it would be suitable for this purpose. This study presents the results from work aimed at determining which hormone-producing phenotypes were expressed under routine and modified culture conditions. Insulin, detected by immunoperoxidase labelling at earlier passages, was not detectable in later passages of RINm5P:-MRC cultures. Immunoblots and radio-immunoassay performed on cell extracts and culture medium respectively confirmed that RINm5F cells contained proinsulin and that low levels of insulin and/ or proinsulin were secreted into the medium. These findings suggested that the insulin content of individual cells was at the lower limit of detection for the immunoperoxidase technique. To overcome the problem of detecting and quantifying the number of cells containing low levels of insulin by microscopy, a protocol was established for immunolabelling cell suspensions for analysis by flow cytometry. Flow cytometry confirmed that RINm5F cultures contained a small percentage (less than 2%) of cells stained for insulin and that a greater subpopulation of cells (18-38%) were positively stained for insulin after cultures had been exposed to 2mM sodium butyrate for three days. Although positively stained cells were observed by immunoperoxidase or immunofluorescence microscopy in sodium butyrate-treated cultures, staining was barely above that of background staining in peroxidasestained preparations and positively labelled cells could only be identified at high magnification in fluorescent-stained preparations. Thus flow cytometry successfully provided an alternative approach to accurately quantify insulin expression in RINm5F-MRC cells. Flow cytometry, immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry established that all glucagon and somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in RINm5F cultures was non-specific and was most likely caused by the binding of non-specific components present in rabbit serum. Ultrastructural studies confirmed that morphologically differentiated islet cell phenotypes were not present in RINm5F-MRC cultures. The finding that RINm5F-MRC cultures consisted mainly of agranular cells and that only a small subpopulation of cells stained for insulin, indicates that this cell line appears to be poorly differentiated. However, the increase in the number of cells containing insulin and the increased insulin secretion in response to sodium butyrate shows that at least some of these cells have the potential to differentiate. These results indicate that RINm5F-MRC cells are suitable for the study of /1-cell differentiation. It remains to be determined whether or not they are suitable for studying the differentiation of other pancreatic islet cell types.
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language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2024
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/40526 Pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the RINm5F cell line Van der Merwe, Elizabeth Lael Dr S.H. Kidson and Prof B.B. Rawdon Cell Biology Phenotypic heterogeneity is a striking feature of the pancreatic islet cell lines (RIN and MSL) derived from a rat islet cell tumour (Chick et al., 1977) which may therefore be suitable for the study of islet cell differentiation in vitro. In the present study, the RINm5F cell line (Oie ~-, 1983) was investigated to determine whether or not it would be suitable for this purpose. This study presents the results from work aimed at determining which hormone-producing phenotypes were expressed under routine and modified culture conditions. Insulin, detected by immunoperoxidase labelling at earlier passages, was not detectable in later passages of RINm5P:-MRC cultures. Immunoblots and radio-immunoassay performed on cell extracts and culture medium respectively confirmed that RINm5F cells contained proinsulin and that low levels of insulin and/ or proinsulin were secreted into the medium. These findings suggested that the insulin content of individual cells was at the lower limit of detection for the immunoperoxidase technique. To overcome the problem of detecting and quantifying the number of cells containing low levels of insulin by microscopy, a protocol was established for immunolabelling cell suspensions for analysis by flow cytometry. Flow cytometry confirmed that RINm5F cultures contained a small percentage (less than 2%) of cells stained for insulin and that a greater subpopulation of cells (18-38%) were positively stained for insulin after cultures had been exposed to 2mM sodium butyrate for three days. Although positively stained cells were observed by immunoperoxidase or immunofluorescence microscopy in sodium butyrate-treated cultures, staining was barely above that of background staining in peroxidasestained preparations and positively labelled cells could only be identified at high magnification in fluorescent-stained preparations. Thus flow cytometry successfully provided an alternative approach to accurately quantify insulin expression in RINm5F-MRC cells. Flow cytometry, immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry established that all glucagon and somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in RINm5F cultures was non-specific and was most likely caused by the binding of non-specific components present in rabbit serum. Ultrastructural studies confirmed that morphologically differentiated islet cell phenotypes were not present in RINm5F-MRC cultures. The finding that RINm5F-MRC cultures consisted mainly of agranular cells and that only a small subpopulation of cells stained for insulin, indicates that this cell line appears to be poorly differentiated. However, the increase in the number of cells containing insulin and the increased insulin secretion in response to sodium butyrate shows that at least some of these cells have the potential to differentiate. These results indicate that RINm5F-MRC cells are suitable for the study of /1-cell differentiation. It remains to be determined whether or not they are suitable for studying the differentiation of other pancreatic islet cell types. 2024-08-16T13:17:43Z 2024-08-16T13:17:43Z 1994 2024-08-15T12:50:38Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40526 eng application/pdf Division of Cell Biology Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Cell Biology
Van der Merwe, Elizabeth Lael
Pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the RINm5F cell line
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the RINm5F cell line
title_full Pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the RINm5F cell line
title_fullStr Pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the RINm5F cell line
title_full_unstemmed Pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the RINm5F cell line
title_short Pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the RINm5F cell line
title_sort pancreatic peptide hormone expression in the rinm5f cell line
topic Cell Biology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40526
work_keys_str_mv AT vandermerweelizabethlael pancreaticpeptidehormoneexpressionintherinm5fcellline