Sympathetic ganglia in diabetes. An ultrastructural and stereologic study.

An ultrastructural and stereologic study was performed on sympathetic ganglia collected at surgery from eight diabetic patients, seven age-matched non-diabetics and six subjects with glucose intolerance. All patients underwent surgery because of arteriosclerosis obliterans. Volume density (Vv) and mean thickness (tau) of the satellite cell layer were found to be significantly higher in diabetics (P less than .001 and P less than .002, respectively) than in the other two groups, between which no difference was found. Vv and tau of the endothelial basal lamina were found to be increased in the diabetic and glucose-intolerance groups at a low level of significance (P less than .05). Satellite cells are thought to exhibit a close similarity to Schwann cells. Ultrastructurally, cytoplasmic edema, increase of subcellular organelles and lipid inclusions were consistently observed in satellite cells from diabetic patients. The results suggest that there may be a metabolic impairment of these cells in diabetes.