Fig. 6.

Type 2 diabetic islets maintain enrichment of presynaptic proteins at the vasculature. (a) Representative images demonstrating that beta cells (insulin, grey) have an enrichment of synaptic protein liprin (green) at the interface with blood vessels (laminin, red; CD31, blue); representative of 3 donors. (b) Fluorescence intensities of liprin at plasma membrane domains. Data analysed from 1 donor (Sample 6); n=15 cells from 3 islets. The nPod samples were partly degraded and not suitable for quantitative analysis. (c) 3D heat map of fluorescence intensity demonstrates an enrichment of liprin along the vascular face represented by the points of brightest liprin and laminin signal (red) being co-located. The cell used is shown by an arrowhead in (a). (d) Cartoon summary of polar organisation of human beta cells, which are organised with respect to the fenestrated capillaries. Scale bars: 50 μm on whole islet images; 10 μm on zoomed-in images and 3D heat maps. Graph presented as mean ± SEM. ***p<0.001 Ins, insulin; Lam, laminin; Lip, liprin