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Effects of Ghrelin on the Structural Complexity of Exocrine Pancreas Tissue Architecture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2013

Igor Pantic ,
Dejan Nesic ,
Darko Stevanovic ,
Vesna Starcevic ,
Senka Pantic  and
Vladimir Trajkovic
Igor Pantic*
Affiliation:
Institute of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Visegradska 26/II, 11129 Belgrade, Serbia
Dejan Nesic
Affiliation:
Institute of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Visegradska 26/II, 11129 Belgrade, Serbia
Darko Stevanovic
Affiliation:
Institute of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Visegradska 26/II, 11129 Belgrade, Serbia
Vesna Starcevic
Affiliation:
Institute of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Visegradska 26/II, 11129 Belgrade, Serbia
Senka Pantic
Affiliation:
Institute of Histology and Embryology, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Višegradska 26, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Vladimir Trajkovic*
Affiliation:
Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr. Subotica 1, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: igor.pantic@mfub.bg.ac.rs
**Corresponding author. E-mail: vtrajkovic@med.bg.ac.rs
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Abstract

Recent studies have shown that ghrelin increases pancreatic exocrine secretion. However, the potential effects of ghrelin on the morphology of exocrine pancreas (EP) remain unknown. In this work, using fractal analysis, we demonstrate that centrally administered ghrelin increases structural complexity and tissue disorder in rat EP. The study was carried out on a total of 40 male Wistar rats divided into four groups (n = 10): ghrelin-treated animals (average age, 1.5 months), ghrelin-treated animals (8.5 months), and controls (1.5 and 8.5 months). The pancreas tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin/eosin and visualized by light microscopy. For each animal, the average values of tissue fractal dimension, lacunarity, as well as parameters of co-occurrence matrix texture, were determined using tissue digital micrographs. The results indicate that ghrelin administration increases EP fractal dimension and textural entropy, and decreases lacunarity, regardless of the age. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effects of ghrelin on the morphological properties of pancreatic tissue, and also the first to apply fractal and textural analysis methods in quantification of EP tissue architecture.

Keywords

ghrelinfractallacunarityentropyagepancreas
Type
Biological Applications
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , June 2013 , pp. 553 - 558
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2013 

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