Essential role of Skp2-mediated p27 degradation in growth and adaptive expansion of pancreatic β cells
J. Clin. Invest. Lingwen Zhong, et al. 117:2869 doi:10.1172/JCI32198 [Go to this article.]

Figure 2
Endoreduplication resulted in polyploidy β cells in Skp2^–/– mice. (A–D) Morphological analysis of pancreatic islets from 10-week-old Skp2^+/– (A and C) and Skp2^–/– (B and D) mice. Pancreatic sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (A and B) or with β-catenin (red) and DAPI (blue) (C and D). Arrows in B indicate enlarged nuclei. Arrows in D show an enlarged cell in the Skp2^–/– islet. Scale bars: 20 μm. (E) Flow cytometric analysis of DNA content of islet cells isolated from Skp2^+/– and Skp2^–/– pancreata. (F) Cell cycle characteristics of β cells from Skp2^+/– and Skp2^–/– mice as measured by BrdU pulse labeling and pHH3 staining. BrdU⁺insulin⁺ cells are counted as β cells at S phase. pHH3⁺ (with punctuated pattern) insulin⁺ cells are counted as β cells at G2 phase. pHH3⁺ (with strong nuclear expression) insulin⁺ cells are counted as β cells at M phase. At least 2,000 β cells were counted at each cell cycle phase. Data are mean ± SEM. ***P < 0.005.