Somatostatin-containing cells in the rat and horse pancreatic islets.

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Abstract
Somatostatin-, glucagon- and insulin-containing cells in rat and horse pancreatic islets were investigated by an indirect immunofluorescent technique using antibodies to insulin, glucagon and somatostatin. In the rat pancreatic islets, insulin-containing cells were located centrally, and glucagon- and somatostatin- or somatostatin-like substance (SLS)-containing cells were peripherally disposed and glucagon-containing cells were situated more peripherally compared with the distribution of somatostatin-containing cells. In the horse pancreatic islets, insulin-containing cells were found in the peripheral area and glucagon- and somatostatin-containing cells were distributed centrally. Insulin-containing cells were most numerous among the 3 types of cells in the islets of the rat and horse. Somatostatin- or SLS-containing cells in the horse were about equal in number to the glucagon-containing cells while those in the rat were smaller in number than the glucagon-containing cells. The somatostatin- and glucagon-containing cells are located, in relation to the bloodstream, on the upstream side of the insulin-containing cells in the islets of Langerhans of both the rat and the horse though these 2 animal species are known to have reverse bloodstream patterns in the islets. The hypothesis was proposed that somatostatin-containing cells regulate the glucagon- and insulin-containing cells by an intercellular transport mechanism which provides somatostatin through a junctional complex, while other insulin-containing cells too remote from the somatostatin-containing cells to be affected by such a mechanism are regulated by a fraction of somatostatin carried down by the bloodstream.
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