Distribution of diazo‐positive (argentaffin) cells in the small intestine of rats of various ages

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Abstract
In unit lengths of longitudinally cut histological sections of the rat small intestine, the number of diazo‐positive argentaffin cells was determined along with the number of other epithelial cells. From these results, the frequency of argentaffin cells among the epithelial cells was calculated. The number, as well as the frequency, was maximal in the proximal duodenum and progressively decreased to a minimum in the mid‐intestine. Thereafter, it increased progressively caudally to reach a second maximum in the terminal ileum. The frequency in the terminal ileum was almost as high as in the proximal duodenum. When calculated for the duodenum of various age groups, it decreased from eight to two argentaffin cells per 1000 epithelial cells from newborn to adult ages respectively. It was calculated furthermore that the total number of diazo‐positive argentaffin cells in the rat small intestine should be around six million. Considering that the argentaffin cells are renewed about every four days (Ferreira and Leblond, ′71), about 1.5 million of them should be formed as well as exfoliated daily.The cells in the villi were stained more intensely than in the crypts, indicating that the argentaffin cells accumulate granules as they migrate from the crypts toward the villus tips, where indeed, intensely stained exfoliating argentaffin cells were occasionally observed. It is suggested that the exfoliation of argentaffin cells full of granules may be a mode of secretion for 5‐hydroxytryptamine into the intestinal lumen.