lesson
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Every time you eat a bowl of pasta or sprint for the bus, the amount of sugar dissolved in your bloodstream shifts dramatically.
Yet your body doesn't rely on your brain to calculate these changes β an organ tucked right behind your stomach monitors your blood sugar every single second.
How does an organ without eyes or nerves actually "taste" the blood flowing through it?
The Dual Nature of the Pancreas
Most of the pancreas produces digestive enzymes that travel through ducts into the small intestine. But scattered throughout this tissue are tiny specialized clusters called endocrine tissue.
An endocrine gland is a group of cells that secretes chemical messengers, known as hormones, directly into the bloodstream rather than through tubes or ducts.
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In 1869, German medical student Paul Langerhans first spotted these pale cellular islands under a microscope, which is why we call them the islets of Langerhans.
What specific cells make up these microscopic islands, and how do they divide the work?
Inside the Islets of Langerhans
Each islet contains two primary sensor cells: alpha cells (Ξ±-cells) and beta cells (Ξ²-cells).
Because the islets are packed with tiny blood vessels called capillaries, glucose molecules in the blood diffuse directly into these cells to be sampled in real time.
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