Distribution and frequency of endocrine cells in the pancreas of the ddY mouse: an immunohistochemical study

The regional distribution and frequency of pancreatic endocrine cells in ddY mice were studied by an immunohistochemical (peroxidase anti-peroxidase; PAP) method using four types of specific antisera against insulin, glucagon, somatostatin and human pancreatic polypeptide (hPP). In the pancreatic islets, most of insulin-immunoreactive (IR) cells were located in the central portion. Most of glucagon- and somatostatin-IR cells were observed in peripheral regions although a somewhat smaller number of cells were also located in the central regions. HPP-IR cells were randomly distributed throughout the entire islets. In the exocrine pancreas, insulin-, glucagon-, somatostatin- and hPP-IR cells were detected; they occurred mainly among the exocrine parenchyma as solitary cells. Cell clusters consisted of only insulin- or only glucagon-IR cells and were distributed in the pancreas parenchyma as small islets. In addition, insulin- and glucagon-IR cells were also demonstrated in the pancreatic duct regions. Insulin-IR cells were located in the epithelium and sub-epithelial connective tissue regions as solitary cells and/or clusters (3-4 cells), and glucagon-IR cells were mainly located in the epithelium as solitary cells. Overall, there were 63.89 +/- 5.39% insulin-, 26.52 +/- 3.55% glucagon-, 7.25 +/- 2.83% somatostatin- and 1.90 +/- 0.58% hPP-IR cells. In conclusion, some strain-dependent characteristic distributional patterns of pancreatic endocrine cells were found in the ddY mouse.