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. 2022 Aug 21;71(8):1679–1693. doi: 10.2337/db21-1104

Figure 7.

Figure 7

Contractile pericytes in human islets are targets of sympathetic nerves. A: Maximal projection of confocal images of a human islet showing that pericytes (NG2, magenta) are contacted by sympathetic nerve fibers (visualized with an antibody against tyrosine hydroxylase [TH], green). A′: Zoomed image (20 μm) of a vessel in the islet in A showing dense sympathetic innervation of pericytes. B: Sympathetic nerve fibers (TH, green) innervate αSMA-expressing pericytes in human (top) and mouse islets (bottom). C: Quantification of the percentage of TH-immunostained area that is in contact with NG2-expressing pericytes. D: Quantification of the percentage of NG2-immunostained area that is in contact with TH-expressing nerve fibers (n = 9 islets from three human donors). Data are shown in box and whisker plots (min to max). Scale bars = 20 μm (A) and 10 μm (B).