Quantitative characteristics of somatostatin-like cells in the stomach of uraemic rats.

Metabolic disorders induced by impairment of renal parenchyma functions affect the activity of the endocrine cells of the APUD system, which are of importance in the intrinsic regulatory system in the digestive tract. For this reason, the author decided to investigate the behaviour of neuroendocrine cells in experimental uraemia, taking somatostatin-producing cells as an example. The aim of the present study was to examine the number and distribution of somatostatin-containing cells in the pylorus of rats with uraemia. Segments of the gastric pylorus were collected 1, 2 and 4 weeks after nephrectomy. Paraffin-embedded sections were stained with H+E and by silver impregnation. To identify the neuroendocrine cells, on immunohistochemical reaction was performed with a specific antibody against somatostatin. It was found that the number of ST-immunoreactive cells in the stomach of the rats significantly decreased one week after nephrectomy and then considerably increased two and four weeks after the uraemia-inducing surgery as compared with the values in the control animals. The results can be regarded as a morphological manifestation of the hyperreaction of somatostatin-producing endocrine cells in the rat stomach to disorders in the internal environment of the body induced by impairment of renal parenchyma function.