The production and cure of metahypophyseal diabetes in the cat: a biochemical and electron-microscopical study with particular reference to the changes in the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas

Abstract

The induction of metahypophyseal diabetes in the cat by treatment with ox anterior pituitary extract, or purified growth hormone, and its cure by treatment with the anti-diabetic sulphonamide, tolbutamide, is described. The fine structure and histochemistry of the pancreatic islets were investigated during the course of the diabetes and after recovery from it, by the examination of biopsy specimens. During the induction of the diabetes the B[beta] cells were denuded of their specific secretory granules and became progressively disorganized and dilated by the presence of intracellular glycogen. In those animals which had recovered from diabetes the [beta] cells of the pancreatic islets contained a nucleus, mitochondria, Golgi membranes, and a normal complement of secretory granules and endoplasmic reticulum. In animals which did not recover from diabetes the [beta] cells of the pancreatic islets had been destroyed. Recovery from diabetes is associated with a substantial increase in the number of cytoplasmic ribonucleic acid particles in the [beta] cells, and also by a great expansion in the surface area of the endoplasmic reticulum. The secretory granules reappear in the Golgi region in the recovered [beta] cells.