RESUMO
Indirect triple immunolabelling techniques were used to identify the presence of choline acetyl-transferase (ChAT), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), Dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DβH), neuromedin U-8 (NMU-8), and neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the ganglionated plexuses of the human gallbladder. Of all the intrinsic cholinergic neurons examined, NMU-8-immunoreactive (-IR) neurons appeared to be the most populous, followed closely by neurons containing NPY-IR. nNOS-IR neurons were often observed to coexist with ChAT, NMU, and NPY. Occasionally, these nNOS positive neurons were seen triple labeled with ChAT, NMU-8, and NPY. Results also indicate that not all nNOS and NMU-8-IR coexistent neurons express NPY immunoposi-tivity. Our findings suggest that these intrinsic neurons may be categorized into a distinct population of neurons that express both inhibitory and excita-tory capabilities.Intrinsic cholinergic neurons that were ChAT-IR displayed a spectrum of immunopositivity. Interestingly, a small subpopulation of these neurons ap-peared to be extremely weak ChAT-IR or simply ChAT-immunonegative. These occasionally obser-ved ChAT-immunonegative neurons at times ex-pressed single immunopositivity for NMU-8 or nNOS, while more frequently, these ChAT-immunonegative neurons were found to be single immunopositive, or at times, double immunopositi-ve for NMU-8-, NPY-, or nNOS-IR.Dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DβH) antibodies were used to confirm the lack of intrinsic sympat-hetic innervation in the human gallbladder. As suspected, in all the sections examined, DβH-IR neu-rons were not detected. The only indication of DβH immunopositivity was noted among delicate fibers surrounding the neurons and blood vessels within the organ
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