A Malignant Tumor of the Pancreas Producing Glucagonoma Syndrome

Abstract

In this study, liver metastases from a patient with a pancreatic glucagonoma producing the syndrome have been investigated histologically, ultrastructurally, and immunocytochemically. A comparison has also been made between the metastases and the primary pancreatic tumor investigated in a parallel study. In the metastatic tissue, glucagon-, pancreatic polypeptide (PP)-, and somatostatin-containing cells were found together with a majority of cells without any immunoreactivity. Glucagon-positive cells were much more numerous than PP- and somatostatin-immunoreactive cells. As in the primary tumor, double immunogold staining of ultrathin sections demonstrated the co-existence of glucagon and PP immunoreactivities in most of the granulated cells, but PP immunolabeling was often faint, so that it probably could not be revealed by the PAP method in light microscopical sections. Such a finding, together with the histological and ultrastructural features, is consistent with an ontogenic and phylogenetic primitiveness of the metastatic cell population.