The time dependence of the concentration of 5-hydroxytryptamine and staining characteristics of enterochromaffin cells in the human doudenum post-mortem.

Abstract

The post-mortem level of 5-hydroxytryptamin (5-HT), formaldehydeinduced fluorescence, argyrophilia, argentaffinity and three other staining reactions were studied in enterochromaffin cells (EC) of the human duodenum in 101 bodies for which the storage time at room and cold (4° C) temperature before autopsy were known. The preservation time of human bodies was 2–77 hours at room temperature and 0–215 hours at 4° C. The duodenal 5-HT level was zero in only one body, in the others clearly analyzable amounts of 5-HT were found. The duodenal 5-HT level did not correlate with storage time of human bodies at room or at cold temperature, respectively, but a low significance (p<0.01) was found between the amine level and the total storage time of bodies at these temperatures before autopsy. In selected material a highly significant (p<0.001) correlation was found between the amine level and the storage time of human bodies at 4° C when the storage time at room temperature was constant (2–4 hours). In experimental conditions on the autopsy material a significant reduction of the duodenal 5-HT amount occurred with increasing the experiment time. Argyrophil cells were found in the duodenum in most specimens but Masson-Fontana-positive argentaffin EC in only a few. The principal difference between argyrophil and argentaffin cells was discussed. Positive EC were found only occasionally in the diazo coupling reaction, but there were no positive EC in the ferric ferricyanide or indophenol reactions. The post-mortem autolysis was followed by increased autofluorescence of the duodenal tissue that obviously faded the formaldehyde-induced fluorescence of EC and therfore formaldehyde-induced fluorescence was less suitable for the demonstration of EC than the above-mentioned silver reactions.