Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase regulates pancreatic ductal, but not β-cell, regeneration.

ABSTRACT: The maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK) is expressed in stem/progenitor cells in some adult tissues, where it has been implicated in diverse biological processes, including the control of cell proliferation. Here, we described studies on its role in adult pancreatic regeneration in response to injury induced by duct ligation and β-cell ablation. MELK expression was studied using transgenic mice expressing GFP under the control of the MELK promoter, and the role of MELK was studied using transgenic mice deleted in the MELK kinase domain. Pancreatic damage was initiated using duct ligation and chemical beta-cell ablation. By tracing MELK expression using a MELK promoter-GFP transgene, we determined that expression was extremely low in the normal pancreas. However, following duct

SUBMITTER: Chung CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4270240 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature