Ghrelin, ghrelin-O-acyl transferase, nucleobindin-2/nesfatin-1 and prohormone convertases in the pancreatic islets of Sprague Dawley rats during development.

Ghrelin and nesfatin-1 are regulators of blood glucose and energy balance. Prohormone convertases (PCs) enable processing of ghrelin and nesfatin-1 from its precursors. An acylation, enabled by ghrelin O-acyl transferase (GOAT) is critical for many of the biological actions of ghrelin. To date, there is no research on the developmental expression of GOAT, and the co-expression of both NUCB2/nesfatin-1 and prohormone convertases in the pancreas. The objective of this research was to immunolocalize ghrelin, GOAT, NUCB2/nesfatin-1, PC1/3 and PC2 in the pancreas during fetal and postnatal periods of Sprague Dawley (SD) rats using immunohistochemical analysis. GOAT mRNA in the rat pancreas during development was also determined. In the pancreas, not all islet cells immunopositive for GOAT are immunoreactive for ghrelin on postnatal (P) days 20, 27 and adult. GOAT mRNA expression in the pancreas at P27 was higher than the expression levels in rest of the developmental stages tested. Both PC1/3 and PC2 are co-expressed with NUCB2/nesfatin-1 on embryonic (E) day E21, P13, P20. While similar co-localization was also found in P27 for NUCB2/nesfatin-1 and PC1/3, NUCB2/nesfatin-1 and PC2 were found in distinct populations of cells in P27. Some ghrelin and GOAT positive cells stained for nesfatin-1 as well. Meanwhile, no co-localization of somatostatin and glucaon with nesfatin-1 was found in the pancreas of SD rats. Our findings suggest that the endocrine pancreas can produce and process precursors of ghrelin and nesfatin-1 to make bioactive forms of both peptides.