Pajevic M, Aleksic M, Golic I, Markelic M, Otasevic V, Jankovic A, Stancic A, Korac B, Korac A
Center for Electron Microscopy, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Belgrade, Serbia.
Folia Morphol (Warsz). 2018;77(3):478-484. doi: 10.5603/FM.a2017.0106. Epub 2017 Nov 13.
The effect of insulin on the endocrine pancreas has been the subject of extensive study, but quantitative morphometric investigations of the exocrine pancreas are scarce. This study was therefore undertaken to investigate the effect of acute and chronic insulin administration (two doses, 0.4 IU and 4 IU) on the morphology of rat pancreas acini.
Semi-fine sections stained with methylene blue and basic fuchsine or haematoxylin and eosin-stained 5-micrometer thick paraffin sections were used for fractal and stereological analysis of exocrine acini. Acute insulin treatment, independent of applied doses increased fractal dimension in line with decreased lacunarity of pancreas acini. Chronic low dose insulin decreased fractal dimension and increased lacunarity of pancreas acini, but a high dose had the opposite effect. The volume densities (Vv) of cytoplasm, granules and nucleus are affected differently: acute low dose and high chronic dose significantly decreased granules Vv, and in line increased cytoplasmic Vv, whereas other examined structures showed slight changes without statistical significance.
The results obtained from this investigation indicate that insulin treatment induced structural remodelling of the exocrine pancreas suggesting a substantial role of insulin in its functioning.
Additionally, we showed that fine architectural changes in acini could be detected by fractal analysis, suggesting this method as an alternative or addition to routine stereology.
胰岛素对内分泌胰腺的影响一直是广泛研究的课题，但对外分泌胰腺的定量形态学研究却很少。因此，本研究旨在探讨急性和慢性胰岛素给药（两种剂量，0.4 IU和4 IU）对大鼠胰腺腺泡形态的影响。
用亚甲蓝和碱性品红染色的半薄切片或苏木精和伊红染色的5微米厚石蜡切片用于外分泌腺泡的分形和体视学分析。急性胰岛素治疗，无论应用剂量如何，均会使分形维数增加，同时胰腺腺泡的孔隙度降低。慢性低剂量胰岛素会降低分形维数并增加胰腺腺泡的孔隙度，但高剂量则有相反的效果。细胞质、颗粒和细胞核的体积密度（Vv）受到不同影响：急性低剂量和慢性高剂量显著降低颗粒Vv，同时细胞质Vv相应增加，而其他检查结构显示轻微变化，无统计学意义。
本研究获得的结果表明，胰岛素治疗诱导了外分泌胰腺的结构重塑，提示胰岛素在其功能中起重要作用。
此外，我们表明通过分形分析可以检测到腺泡的细微结构变化，这表明该方法可作为常规体视学的替代方法或补充方法。
