Table 3.

Characteristics of the fetal pancreas

	Control	Hypoglycemic	HG+I
Islet size, μm2	3,002 ± 137	3,392 ± 481	3,009 ± 197
Islet density, number/FOV	4.85 ± 0.32	3.75 ± 0.33*	3.29 ± 0.35*
β-Cell area, %	5.74 ± 0.73	4.44 ± 0.89	3.06 ± 0.58*
β-Cell mass, mg	240 ± 50	120 ± 30*	70 ± 10†
Pancreatic insulin content, mg/g	52.0 ± 6.2	24.0 ± 5.5†	19.9 ± 4.4†
Pancreatic insulin content per β-cell area (ratio)	9.61 ± 1.27	5.50 ± 0.49*	6.51 ± 0.86
Pancreatic insulin mRNA (ratio to actin)	1.00 ± 0.35	0.49 ± 0.13	0.15 ± 0.05*
α-Cell area, %	3.18 ± 0.21	1.99 ± 0.21	1.88 ± 0.69*
α-Cell mass, mg	130 ± 20	50 ± 10†	50 ± 20†
Pancreatic glucagon content, mg/g	4.05 ± 0.66	3.45 ± 0.71	1.80 ± 0.65*
Pancreatic glucagon content per α-cell area (ratio)	1.26 ± 0.17	1.71 ± 0.24	0.66 ± 0.25‡
Pancreatic glucagon mRNA (ratio to actin)	1.00 ± 0.24	0.58 ± 0.19	0.37 ± 0.18
Pancreatic polypeptide mRNA (ratio to actin)	1.00 ± 0.48	1.27 ± 0.24	0.72 ± 0.27
Pancreatic somatostatin mRNA (ratio to actin)	1.00 ± 0.22	0.82 ± 0.25	0.52 ± 0.16

All values are means ± SE.

^*P < 0.05;

^†P < 0.005 Control vs. Hypoglycemic or HG+I;

^‡P < 0.05 Hypoglycemic vs. HG+I. FOV, field of view.