Summary
Certain disseminated endocrine-like cells have reviously been found to give off long cytoplasmic processes which end with small bulbous expansions on the membranes of other cell types. It is believed that the process-carrying cells control the functions of the receiving cells by local and directed (paracrine) secretion of messenger molecules (peptides, biogenic monoamines) through their processes. Following injections of amine precursors paracrine cells take up and convert these to the corresponding amines, which can be cytochemically visualized by the Falck-Hillarp formaldehyde-induced fluorescence technique. As the amines are stored in the cytoplasmic (secretory) granules of the cells, they form useful markers for studies of granule turnover and transport. By injecting, at different time intervals, two different precursors (L-5-hydroxytryptophan and L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine), resulting in amines giving different fluorescence colours in the Falck-Hillarp procedure, we have been able to separately label old and new secretory granule fractions in different fluorescence colours. Examination of such double-labelled paracrine cells (mostly gastric somatostatin cells) indicates that their secretory granules are transported in a proximo-distal direction in the paracrine cell processes (“paraxons”). This finding strongly supports the concept that paracrine cells control the functions of the cells they contact by way of directed, process-mediated delivery of their secretory products.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arimura A, Coy DH, Chihara M, Fernandez-Durango R, Samols E, Chihara E, Meyers CA, Schally AV (1978) Somatostatin. In: Bloom SR (ed) Gut hormones. Churchill-Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp 437–445
Björklund A, Falck B, Owman C (1972) Fluorescence microscopic and microspectrofluorometric techniques for the cellular localization and characterization of biogenic monoamines. In: Rall JE, Kopin TJ (eds) The thyroid and biogenic amines. North-Holland, Amsterdam, Methods of investigative and diagnostic endocrinology, vol 1, pp 318–368)
Chiba T, Kadowaki S, Taminato T, Chihara K, Seino Y, Matsuhara S, Fujita T (1981) Effect of antisomatostatin γ-globulin on gastrin release in rats. Gastroenterology 81:321–326
Coggeshall RE (1971) A possible sensory-motor neuron in Aplysia californica. Tissue Cell 3:637–648
Falck B, Owman C (1968) 5-hydroxytryptamine and related amines in endocrine cell systems. Adv Pharmacol 6:211–231
Feyrter F (1954) Über die peripheren Endokrinen (Parakrinen) drüsen des Menschen. Maudrich, Wien Düsseldorf
Fletcher DJ, Noe BD, Bauer GE, Quigley JP (1980) Characterization of the conversion of a somatostatin precursor to somatostatin by islet secretory granules. Diabetes 29:593–599
Fujita T, Kobayashi S (1981) The endocrine cell. In: Bloom SR, Polak JM (eds) Gut Hormones, 2nd ed. Churchill-Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp 90–95
Gainer H, Loh YP, Sarne Y (1977) Biosynthesis of neuronal peptides. In: Gainer H (ed) Peptides in Neurobiology. Plenum Press, New York, pp 183–219
Goldsmith PC, Rose JC, Arimura A, Ganong WF (1975) Ultrastructural localization of somatostatin in pancreatic islets of the rat. Endocrinology 97:1061–1064
Gylfe E (1977) Serotonin as marker for the secretory granules in the pancreatic β-cell. Acta Physiol Scand (Suppl) 452:125–128
Larsson L-I (1980) Peptide secretory pathways in GI tract: cytochemical contributions to regulatory physiology of the gut. Am J Physiol 239:G237-G246
Larsson L-I (1980) Peptide immunocytochemistry. Progress Histochem Cytochem 13 (No 4), pp 1–85
Larsson L-I, Goltermann NR, de Magistris L, Rehfeld JF, Schwartz TW (1979) Somatostatin cell processes as pathways for paracrine secretion. Science 205:1393–1394
Larsson L-I, Rehfeld JF (1977) Evidence for a common evolutionary origin of gastrin and cholecystokinin. Nature 269:335–338
Larsson L-I, Sundler F, Håkanson R (1975) Fluorescence histochemistry of polypeptide hormone-secreting cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa. In: Thompson JC (ed) Gastrointestinal hormones. University of Texas Press, Austin London, pp 169–195
Palade G (1975) Intracellular aspects of the process of protein synthesis. Science 189:347–358
Pearse AGE (1977) The diffuse neuroendocrine system and the APUD concept: related “endocrine” peptides in brain, intestine, pituitary, placenta and anuran cutaneous glands. Med Biol 55:115–125
Rubin W, Schwartz B (1981) An electron microscopic radioautographic identification of the APUD endocrine cells in rat gastric pyloric glands. Gastroenterology 81:311–320
Rufener C, Amherdt M, Dubois MP, Orci L (1975) Ultrastructural immunocytochemical localization of somatostatin in rat pancreatic monolayer culture. J Histochem Cytochem 23:866–869
Saffouri B, Weir GC, Bitar KN, Makhlouf GM (1979) Stimulation of gastrin secretion from the vascularly perfused rat stomach by somatostatin antiserum. Life Sci 20:1749–1754
Saffouri B, Weir GC, Bitar KN, Markhlouf GM (1980) Gastrin and somatostatin secretion by perfused rat stomach: functional linkage of antral peptides. Am J Physiol 238:G495-G501
Solcia E, Capella C, Buffa R, Frigerio B (1976) Histochemical and ultrastructural studies on the argentaffin and argyrophil cells of the gut. In: Coupland RE, Fujita T (eds) Chromaffin, enterochromaffin and related cells. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 209–225
Sternberger LA (1979) Immunocytochemistry, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was reported in part at the 29th Congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, Sydney, Australia, August 28–September 3, 1983
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Larsson, L.I. Evidence for anterograde transport of secretory granules in processes of gastric paracrine (somatostatin) cells. Histochemistry 80, 323–326 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00495411
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00495411