European Journal of Anatomy

Official Journal of The Spanish Society of Anatomy
Cover Volume 24 - Number 1
Eur J Anat, 24 (1): 17-29 (2020)

Immunohistochemical characteristics of ganglionated plexuses in thehuman gallbladder

Phillip Y.P. Jen1, Fadi Al Akhrass2, Nathan Pray1, Cassie Day1, Lais M. de Oliveira1, Harty Ashby2, Lina Abdallah2, Jaymie Collins1, Daniel Bosse-Joseph1

1Department of Biology, University of Pikeville, Pikeville, Kentucky, United States of America, 2Pikeville Medical Center, Pikeville, Kentucky, United States of America

ABSTRACT Indirect triple immunolabelling techniques were used to identify the presence of choline acetyl-transferase (ChAT), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), Dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DβH), neu-romedin U-8 (NMU-8), and neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the ganglionated plexuses of the human ga-llbladder.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 neu-rons 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. Interes-tingly, 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 sus-pected, in all the sections examined, DβH-IR neu-rons were not detected. The only indication of DβH immunopositivity was noted among delicate fibers surrounding t

Keywords: Immunohistochemistry â?? Triple-labelled â?? Ganglionated plexus â?? Human â?? Ga-llbladder

European Journal of anatomy
ISSN 2340-311X (Online)