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Light, fluorescence, and electron microscopic investigations of the peripheral autonomic nervous system in frog pancreas with particular reference to monoamines and acetylcholinesterase activity in the islets of langerhans

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Summary

The autonomic nervous system in the pancreas of Rana temporaria, R. ridi, bunda, R. esculenta and Hyla arborea was studied with histochemical methods of light: fluorescence, and electron microscopy. These species displayed the following common features:

  1. (1)

    a developed innervation whose topographic distribution was similar to that observed in the mammalian pancreas,

  2. (2)

    a richer nervous supply to the islets of Langerhans than to exocrine tissue,

  3. (3)

    a prevalence of cholinergic over adrenergic innervation in islets and exocrine parenchyma,

  4. (4)

    sporadic Cajal interstitial cell-like cells of a cholinergic nature,

  5. (5)

    in islets, the B-cells were mainly supplied by adrenergic, and the A2-cells by cholinergic nerve endings,

  6. (6)

    the occurrence of biogenic monoamines in B-cells and of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in B- and A2-cells.

These aspects together with observations on the fine structure, nature, and the intimate morpho-functional relationship of nerve terminals with blood vessels, acinar and endocrine cells, are discussed in connection with the findings of other authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung für Elektronenmikroskopie, Anatomisches Institut der Universität Giessen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

    Tiberiu Trandaburu

  2. Department of Animal Physiology, Institute of Biology, Bucharest, Romania

    Tiberiu Trandaburu

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  1. Tiberiu Trandaburu
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This work was supported by a fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung and by a grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (La 229-3). The author expresses his thanks to Professor R. H. Lange for scientific advice and to Mr. W. Kramer for technical assistance. Nialamide was a gift from Prizer GmbH., Karlsruhe.

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Trandaburu, T. Light, fluorescence, and electron microscopic investigations of the peripheral autonomic nervous system in frog pancreas with particular reference to monoamines and acetylcholinesterase activity in the islets of langerhans. Z.Zellforsch 135, 329–348 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307180

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307180

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