title: Morphometrical quantitation of pancreatic endocrine cells in patients with carcinoma of the pancreas.
abstract: A morphometrical study of the tumor-free pancreatic regions has been performed in 18 patients with carcinoma of the pancreas, who were divided into three groups, i.e., diabetics, patients exhibiting impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and normoglycemics. Tissues were stained for A, B, D and PP cells by immunocytochemistry and, for comparative purposes, the results were expressed as the number of cells/mm2. The diabetic and the IGT groups presented reduced A and B cell populations, with B cell counting lower in diabetics than in the IGT group. In addition, an inverse correlation was found between the number of B cells and the fasting plasma glucose (FPG) values, which suggests that the destruction of B cells may be the primordial cause of the glucose abnormality found in those patients. Possibly, a destructive process and fibrosis, similar to those occurring in chronic pancreatitis, are implicated in the reduction of such endocrine cells.
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D002293:Adenocarcinoma, Scirrhous / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D000368:Aged; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D002452:Cell Count; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010179:Pancreas / Q000473:pathology*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose