title: What difference exists in the pancreas of mammals with sanguivorous diet? A morphological, stereological and immunohistochemical study of the pancreatic islets of the hematophagous bat Diphylla ecaudata.
abstract: Diphylla ecaudata is a vampire bat that mainly feeds on the blood of birds. This highly specialized diet - hematophagy - is accompanied by a series of morphological changes in the gastro-entero-pancreatic system, since the distribution and relative proportions of different pancreatic endocrine cell types can vary between species due to different physiological conditions and eating habits. The aim of this study was to examine for the first time the pancreas of the vampire bat D. ecaudata using morphological, stereological and immunohistochemical techniques. The pancreas of the D. ecaudata has an exocrine acinar portion in which the highest concentration of pancreatic islets is scattered. These pancreatic islets have irregular size and a mean diameter of 56.94 μm. The total number of islets in the pancreas was 23,900, with a volumetric density of 4.1%. Insulin-immunoreactive (IR) cells were located in the central pancreatic islet region and had the largest density (54.8%). Glucagon-IR cells were located mainly in the peripheral mantle region (16.2%), along with somatostatin-IR (SS) cells (14.3%). Cells immunoreactive to insulin, glucagon and somatostatin were also observed to have spread in isolated places in the exocrine pancreas. In the connective tissue near the pancreatic ducts, a high concentration was identified of insulin-IR cells and a low concentration of glucagon-IR and somatostatin-IR cells. These results indicate that although the pancreas of D. ecaudata has morphological similarities with that of other mammals, it has a differentiated islet structure, because there were a large number of islets and different volumetric densities of α, β and δ cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomorphology, Federal University of Bahia, Av. Reitor Miguel Calmon s/n, 40110-903, Salvador, BA, Brazil. Electronic address: clahisto@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Clarice
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Machado-Santos
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Morphometry, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Disease, Biomedical Center, Institute of Biology, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Av. 28 de Setembro 87 fds, 20551-030 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Júlio César Fraulob
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Aquino
authors.affiliation: Animal Biology Program, Rio de Janeiro Federal Rural University (UFRRJ), Br 465km7s/n, 23890-000, Seropédica, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Jefferson Simanas
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Mikalauka
authors.affiliation: Animal Biology Department, Department of Animal Biology, UFRRJ, Seropédica, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abidu-Figueiredo
authors.affiliation: Animal Biology Department, Department of Animal Biology, UFRRJ, Seropédica, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rosa Maria Marcos
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Mendes
authors.affiliation: Animal Biology Department, Department of Animal Biology, UFRRJ, Seropédica, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Armando
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sales
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers