Localization of pancreastatin immunoreactivity in porcine endocrine cells

Pancreastatin is a peptide isolated from the porcine pancreas and shown to inhibit insulin release. We have studied the immunocytochemical distribution of pancreastatin in three porcine endocrine tissues: pancreas, gut, and adenohypophysis. Pancreastatin-specific immunoreactivity was found in all three locations and distributed to numerous cells. In the pancreas, we performed the alternate labeling of consecutive thick (immunofluorescence) or thin (protein A-gold) sections and we observed that pancreastatin colocalizes to secretory granules of insulin and somatostatin-containing cells. The relationship of pancreastatin to chromogranin A is discussed.