Figure 3.

Overexpression of AURKA is sufficient to induce primary rat islet proliferation. (A) Incorporation of [³H-methyl]-thymidine in rat islets. (B) Viral doses of AdCMV-AURKA have a linear increase in [³H-methyl]-thymidine incorporation, which corresponds with (C) AURKA mRNA and (D) protein levels (with representative western blot). Islets were untreated, treated with ∼2 × 10⁷IFU/mL AdCMV-GFP or increasing doses of AdCMV-AURKA (beginning at ∼1 × 10⁷ IFU/mL and increasing 2 fold). (E) Percentage of cells in each phase of the cell cycle after treatment with AdCMV-GFP or AdCMV-Nkx6.1. (F) Percentage of cells with BrdU+ nuclei after treatment with AdCMV-GFP or AdCMV-AURKA. Data represent the mean±SEM of 4 independent experiments. *P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01; ***P ≤ 0.001. P value represents the comparison between AURKA- and GFP-treated islets.