Ablation of somatostatin cells leads to impaired pancreatic islet function and neonatal death in rodents

The somatostatin (SST)-secreting cells were mainly distributed in the pancreatic islets, brain, stomach and intestine in mammals and have many physiological functions. In particular, the SST-secreting δ cell is the third most common cell type in the islets of Langerhans. Recent studies have suggested that dysregulation of paracrine interaction between the pancreatic δ cells and β cells results in impaired glucose homeostasis and contributes to diabetes development. However, direct evidence of the functional importance of SST cells in glucose homeostasis control is still lacking. In the present study, we specifically ablated SST-secreting cells by crossing Sst-cre transgenic mice with R26(DTA) mice (Sst(Cre) R26(DTA)). The Sst(Cre) R26(DTA) mice exhibited neonatal death. The life spans of these mice with severe hypoglycemia were extended by glucose supplementation. Moreover, we observed that SST cells deficiency led to increased insulin content and excessive insulin release, which might contribute to the observed hypoglycemia. Unexpectedly, although SST is critical for the regulation of insulin content, factors other than SST that are produced by pancreatic δ cells via their endogenous corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 2 (CRHR2) activity play the main roles in maintaining normal insulin release, as well as neonatal glucose homeostasis in the resting state. Taken together, our results identified that the SST cells in neonatal mouse played critical role in control of insulin release and normal islet function. Moreover, we provided direct in vivo evidence of the functional importance of the SST cells, which are essential for neonatal survival and the maintenance of glucose homeostasis.