Eleonore Ngounou
Health Science, University of Buea Cameroon and currently at the last phase of her PhD study at the Stellenbosch University
Title: A thinner Peri-islet Basement Membrane associated with a least vascularization of islets may be a weak link to pathological conditions in the pancreas
Biography
Biography: Eleonore Ngounou
Abstract
In the pancreas, the duodenal islets are more susceptible to pathological conditions and are less numerous compared to the splenic islets. Many studies have described the regional heterogeniety of islet cell distribution and composition in human and rodents, but very little is known of the association between islet microvasculature and islet cell density. To understand the functional relationships between these two factors, we evaluated quantitatively the distribution of endothelial cells and the thickness of their basement membrane using anti-CD34 antibody and methenamine silver stains, respectively. Serial sections from both the duodenal and splenic portion of pancreata of STZ- and HFD-induced diabetic rats were used for immunohistochemical studies. Images from tissue sections were captured at 20x and stored in Tagged Image File Format and analysed using image J colorization methods. Duodenal islets were less vascularized and were supported by a thinner basement membrane in both control and diabetic animals. Anti CD34 antibody and methanamine stained pixel areas were significantly greater in the splenic portion with mean ±SEM of duodenal vs splenic portion in control animals =5.61±0.0575 vs 6.08±0.043% (p<0.05) and 15.6±0.3.2 vs 18±0.21% (p<0.01) for both stains respectively. From this study, it is clear that the duodenal islets are exposed to pathological conditions such as diabetes due the weakness in the thickness of their Peri-islet Basement Membrane (PBM) and the minimal vascularization they have.