Summary
In the digestive tract of the chicken, numerous cells showing gastrin immuno-reactivity were found in a narrow zone joining the gizzard with the duodenum. Here the mucosa resembled that of the mammalian pyloric gland area (antrum). The gastrin cells, which were rarely seen outside this zone, stained argyrophil with the technique of Grimelius but not with that of Hellerström-Hellman. The latter technique instead demonstrated another large cell population that did not react with the Grimelius stain. Ultrastructurally, the mucosa was richly endowed with endocrine-like cells, the majority of which belonged to either of two cell populations. In accordance with the morphological findings, extracts from the narrow antrum-like zone were found to contain large amounts of gastrin-like immunoreactivity; only traces occurred in the remainder of the gut. Gel chromatography revealed that the dominating form of chicken gastrin was heptadecapeptide-like.
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This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council (04X-1007), the Danish Medical Research Council (512-1666, 512-2540), AB Påhlsson's Foundation, Fonden for Stor-København, Grönland and Faeroerne, and King Chr. X's Foundation.
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Larsson, L.I., Sundler, F., Håkanson, R. et al. Distribution and properties of gastrin cells in the gastrointestinal tract of chicken. Cell Tissue Res. 154, 409–421 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00219665
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00219665