Summary
A peculiar type of cell, the ECL cell, accounts for a large portion of nonenterochromaffin endocrine cells in the gastric oxyntic glands of several mammals, including rat, mouse, guinea pig, rabbit, cat, dog, pig, and man. The ECL cell is characterized mainly by its secretory granules with irregular cores heavily reacting to Grimelius' silver, Sevier-Munger silver and phosphotungstic acid, while failing to react, in all species but the cat and rabbit, to Masson's argentaffin method. In the rat and mouse, the ECL cell seems to correspond exactly to the argyrophil non-argentaffin histamine-storing “enterochromaffin-like” cell of Håkanson and Owman (1967); in the remaining species, ECL cells seem to account for only a part of the gastric argyrophil “enterochromaffin-like” cells described by Håkanson and coworkers. Besides sporadic amines, ECL cell granules store non-amine components, whose possible nature is discussed.
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This investigation was supported in part by Farmitalia S.p.A., Milano.
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Capella, C., Vassallo, G. & Solcia, E. Light and electron microscopic identification of the histamine-storing argyrophil (ECL) cell in murine stomach and of its equivalent in other mammals. Z. Zellforsch. 118, 68–84 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00331767
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00331767