Simultaneous histochemical demonstration of noradrenergic nerves and tissue components in guinea-pig renal pelvis after treatment with daunomycin.

A standard histochemical technique for detecting catecholamines has been applied to tissues from the renal pelvis of untreated and daunomycin-pretreated guinea-pigs. Under the fluorescence microscope, muscular, mucosal, and endothelial cells exhibited the drug-specific orange-red fluorescence, in contrast to the dark background of control tissues. The presence of daunomycin in the cells also greatly improved the visibility of numerous noradrenergic fibres which appeared to originate from perivascular plexuses and distribute to the smooth cells. A dense noradrenergic innervation was detected in the submucosa, but the epithelium did not contain any yellow-green fluorescent fibres. A typical arrangement was observed consisting of muscular, nervous and vascular components, enveloped by connective tissue: this formation appeared to be related to the system modulating the pacemaker activity of the renal pelvis.