Cellular distribution and amount of chromogranin A in bovine endocrine pancreas

We determined the cellular distribution and the amount of chromogranin A in endocrine cells of bovine pancreas using a polyclonal antibody against bovine adrenomedullary chromogranin A. The relative amounts of chromogranin A in the different cells of the endocrine pancreas were determined by computer-assisted analyses of the optical densities of the immunoreactivities in the stained sections. More than 80% of the immunoreactive chromogranin A was located in the pancreatic B-cells. In immunoblots of acid tissue extracts, only one chromogranin A band (MW 74 KD) was observed. Quantification of the immunoblots revealed that 3 micrograms of chromogranin A and 918 micrograms of insulin were present per gram pancreas (wet weight), equivalent to a molar ratio of 460 mumol chromogranin A per mol insulin.