The islets of Langerhans (islands of endocrine cells) can be found in which organ?

The pancreatic islets or islets of Langerhans are the regions of the pancreas that contain its endocrine (hormone-producing) cells, discovered in 1869 by German pathological anatomist Paul Langerhans.

The pancreatic islets constitute 1 to 2% of the pancreas volume and receive 10–15% of its blood flow. The pancreatic islets are arranged in density routes throughout the human pancreas and are important in the metabolism of glucose.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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15 Comments

Chrissie

Good thing this is a multi-choice quiz - I was going to answer Denmark. That will teach me to read the whole question! - which was what I constantly told my pupils, too.

Fred Zeb Fudpucker

Darlene Davidson, they are just as important to healthy people. Everybody needs insulin. It's just that diabetics either don't have enough or what they they have does not work very well. I spent 34 years around blood glucose testing.

Cheryl Love

They produce insulin, a much more important function than the question told us! People with Type I diabetes generally do not have any, or many, of these cells left.

Chris Brown

Also, Langerhans cells (LC) are a unique population of tissue-resident macrophages that form a network of cells across the epidermis of the skin, but which have the ability to migrate from the epidermis to draining lymph nodes (LN). Their location at the skin barrier suggests a key role as immune sentinels. -- Worth noting.