Immunohistochemical Demonstration of Gastrin in Mammalian Islets of Langerhans

Abstract

THE relationship between the gastric secretagogue extracted from Zollinger–Ellison tumours¹ and the antral hormone gastrin^2,3 was clarified by Gregory et al.⁴ who found the amino-acid constitution of the gastric secretagogue contained in Zollinger–Ellison tumours to be identical to that of human gastrin. Previous attempts to extract the gastric secretagogue from normal hog pancreas¹ and from normal human and animal pancreas⁵ were, however, unsuccessful. We have now demonstrated the presence of gastrin in some cells of normal mammalian islets of Langerhans by the indirect immunofluorescent technique. In addition, the fluorescent cells found in normal human pancreatic islets were found to correspond to the D cells discovered by Bloom⁶, which were recently identified^7–10 with the argyrophil A₁ cells of Hellerström and Hellman¹¹.