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An immunocytochemical survey of endocrine cells in the gastrointestinal tract of chicks at hatching

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Summary

The distribution of gastrin-, cholecystokinin-, glucagon-, secretin-, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-, substance P-, bombesin-, neurotensin-, motilin-, somatostatin- and avian pancreatic polypeptide-like cells, demonstrated by indirect immunocytochemistry, was studied in samples from the following regions: proventriculus, gizzard, pylorus, duodenum, upper and lower ileum, caeca and rectum. The pylorus is particularly rich in gastrin-, neurotensin- and somatostatin-like cells. No cells immunoreactive for gastric inhibitory polypeptide or insulin were detected. In a number of instances the same cells were found to stain with antisera raised to different gut peptides. This happened with antisera detecting gastrin- and neurotensin-like cells, with antisera to avian pancreatic polypeptide and glucagon and with antisera to secretin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, glucagon and substance P. The possibility that antigenic determinants to more than one peptide are contained in certain endocrine-like cells is considered.

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Author notes

  1. B. B. Rawdon

    Present address: Department of General Anatomy, Dental School, University of the Witwatersrand, 2001, Johannesburg, South Africa

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg, South Africa

    B. B. Rawdon &  Ann Andrew

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  1. B. B. Rawdon
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  2. Ann Andrew
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Additional information

The authors wish to thank sincerely the donors of antisera and antigens listed in Table 1. We also acknowledge with gratitude grants from the South African Medical Research Council and the Research Committees of Senate and Council of the University of the Witwatersrand. We are grateful to Dr. Camille Vaillant for critically reading the manuscript. We should also like to thank Mrs. S. Brandes, Mrs. M.A.Rawdon, Mrs. K. Wolter, Mrs. J. Layzell and Mr. P. Faugust for skilled technical assistance.

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Rawdon, B.B., Andrew, A. An immunocytochemical survey of endocrine cells in the gastrointestinal tract of chicks at hatching. Cell Tissue Res. 220, 279–292 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00210509

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