Pancreatic Nonhormone Expressing Endocrine Cells in Children With Type 1 Diabetes

It has been proposed that the deficit in β-cell mass in type 1 diabetes (T1D) may be due, in part, to β-cell degranulation to chromogranin-positive hormone-negative (CPHN) cells. The frequency and distribution of pancreatic CPHN cells were investigated in 19 children with T1D compared with 14 nondiabetic (ND) children. We further evaluated these cells for replication and expression of endocrine lineage markers Nkx6.1 and Nkx2.2, and compared these frequencies with those previously reported in CPHN cells in adults with T1D. In contrast to adults’ cells, pancreatic CPHN cells were comparably abundant (percentage of endocrine cells ± standard error of the mean, 1.4 ± 0.2 vs 1.0 ± 0.2 in patients with T1D vs ND subjects, respectively; P = not significant) and comparably distributed in children with T1D vs ND donors. Replication of CPHN cells was detected but unchanged in children with T1D vs ND children, as was the percentage of CPHN cells expressing Nkx6.1 or NKx2.2. In children with T1D, the frequency of pancreatic CPHN cells was not increased, and this differed from adults with T1D.