Endocrine cells of the colon in Hirschsprung's and control children

The large intestine resected from 6 Hirschsprung's patients and surgical colonic biopsies from 6 control children were examined with light and electron microscopy. The presence and the relative distribution of various endocrine cell types in both groups of mucosa were determined. In light microscope studies endocrine cell data were expressed as number of cells per unit area of mucosa using a quantitative method after argentaffin and Grimelius's argyrophilic techniques and an immunoperoxidase reaction with glucagon and somatostatin (SRIF) antisera. The results indicate that endocrine cells are apparently not involved in Hirschsprung's disease, since their number and frequency did not differ significantly between the ganglionic and aganglionic segments of Hirschsprung's patients nor between the latter and control children. Glucagon immunoreactive cells were, on the average, 5-6 times and 7-9 times more numerous that SRIF cells in the rectum and the sigmoid, respectively. Ultrastructurally, five endocrine cell types could be distinguished. The fifth type, probably a transition type, apparently disappears in adults.