Fig. 6. Pancreas insulin content and islet function appear normal in the PdxCre^late ß-cat^active mouse. (A,B) The islet architecture of adult PdxCre^late ß-cat^active mutant mice (B) is comparable with control (A) as revealed by glucagon (green) and insulin (red) staining of pancreas sections. DAPI stained nuclei are indicated in blue. Scale bars: 50 µm. (C-H) The majority of ß-cells, identified by insulin staining (red), in the adult PdxCre^late ß-cat^active mutant (D; at higher magnification in G) display localization of ß-catenin (green) to the plasma membrane that is equivalent to control (C; at higher magnification in F). However, a subset of ß-cells in the PdxCre^late ß-cat^active mutants (E; at higher magnification in H) exhibit high levels of cytoplasmic ß-catenin staining. Scale bars: 100 µm in C-E; 15 µm in F-H. (I,J) The ß-cells that exhibit strong cytoplasmic ß-catenin localization (green) in the PdxCre^late ß-cat^active mutant (J) still stain positive for the adult ß-cell transcription factor Pdx1 (red), a characteristic of properly differentiated ß-cells. ß-Cells present in equivalent adult pancreas sections from control animals are shown stained for Pdx1 (I). (K) Resolution of a fasting glucose challenge is equivalent in control (blue) and PdxCre^late ß-cat^active (orange) animals (n=6 for each genotype, error bars represent s.e.m.).