Evidence for the presence of serotonergic perikarya in the fetal rat pancreas as demonstrated by the high affinity uptake of [H]5-HT

Evidence has been obtained for the presence of serotonergic fibers in the adult rat pancreas; however, the location of the serotonergic cell bodies remains unknown. Fetal rat pancreata (18, 20 and 22 days) were demonstrated to possess a high-affinity uptake of serotonin. Radioautography revealed the uptake sites to be similar to those seen in the adult, indicating the presence of serotonergic fibers in early development. In addition, cell bodies, possibly representing primitive neurons, were demonstrated to be heavily labelled. This suggests a possible intra-pancreatic location for the cell bodies of the pancreatic nerves. The preservation of the specific serotonin uptake in 18-day fetal tissue after 4 days in organ culture substantiates this view.     

Implementation and analysis of relief patterns of the surface of benign and malignant lesions of the skin by microtopography

The objective of this study was to be able to distinguish between healthy skin tissue and malignant ones, furthermore determining a unique pattern of roughness for each skin lesion by microtopographic analysis of the skin surface of Mexican patients during the period from April to October 2002. The standard technique used in this study for the diagnosis of skin cancer and the comparison of the results was the haematoxylin-eosin histopathological technique. Latex impressions were taken from skin lesions as well as from the healthy skin of each patient to serve as control samples. These impressions were analysed by the MICROTOP.03.MFC microtopographic system inspection. It was observed that when the tumour becomes rougher, more malign will be the lesion. On average, the melanoma present an increase of roughness of 67% compared to healthy skin, obtaining a roughness relation of 1:2.54. The percentage decreases to 49% (49%, 1:60) in the case of basal cell carcinoma and to 40% in pre-malignant lesions such as melanocytic nevus (40%, 1:150). In benign lesions such as the seborrhoea keratosis only a small increase in roughness was noted (4%, 1:0.72). Microtopographic inspection of the skin surface can be considered as a complementary diagnostic technique for skin cancer.