Summary
Serotonin immunoreactive material was localized to rat enterochromaffin cells (EC cells) at the subcellular level using antibodies to serotonin (5-HT) raised in rabbits. Ultrathin sections from paraformaldehyde fixed plastic embedded tissues were directly labelled with the 5-HT antiserum, using the protein A-gold technique to visualize the immunoreaction. The 5-HT immunoreactivity (5-HT-IR) in the rat gastrointestinal mucosa was exclusively localized to epithelial EC cells with a low background over other epithelial non-enterochromaffin cells. Quantitative evaluation of the immunoreaction revealed that most of the 5-HT-IR in the cytoplasm of EC cells (60%) was located over the dense cores of the secretory granules. However, a significant part of the cytoplasmic 5-HT-IR (40%) was located outside the dense cores of the secretory granules which suggests that different forms of 5-HT storage may exist.
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Supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council (537, 2207, 5220). Göteborgs Läkaresällskap, and The Medical Faculty of Göteborg
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Nilsson, O., Ericson, L.E., Dahlström, A. et al. Subcellular localization of serotonin immunoreactivity in rat enterochromaffin cells. Histochemistry 82, 351–355 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00494064
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00494064