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Topics in Biomedical Gerontology pp 67–89Cite as

Morphology of the Human Pancreas During Development and Aging

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Abstract

Pancreas gets affected by fibrosis associated with aging. This study analyzed the age-related fibrotic changes in the ductular system of the pancreas. After obtaining necessary ethical clearances, twelve human fetal and thirty post-natal and adult pancreas were collected and processed to obtain resin-embedded sections for transmission electron microscopy and paraffin-embedded sections for H&E staining and light microscopy. The sections were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The human pancreas had mature zymogen granules in the exocrine part and secretory granules in the endocrine part by 20th week of gestation. The amount of connective tissue and acini increased with age. After the 3rd decade, there was increased fibrosis. This began around small and medium sized ducts. Changes in the epithelium of ducts were seen in later decades. There was a direct correlation between area of the ducts and increasing age. There was increased fibrosis in and around the islets of Langerhans. The number of fibroblasts and stellate cells increased with age. The increased fibrosis with increasing age that first appears around the small and medium sized ducts may be due to increased number of pancreatic stellate cells.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

    Renu Gupta

  2. Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 110029, India

    Shubhi Saini & Tony G. Jacob

  3. Dr. B.S. Ambedkar Medical College and Hospital, Rohini, Delhi, 110085, India

    Saroj Sharma

  4. Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Room no. 1018, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110029, India

    T. S. Roy

Authors
  1. Renu Gupta
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  2. Shubhi Saini
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  3. Saroj Sharma
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  4. Tony G. Jacob
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  5. T. S. Roy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. S. Roy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Molecular Biology Laboratory, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Delhi, India

    Pramod C. Rath

  2. Department of Biochemistry, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Megalaya, India

    Ramesh Sharma

  3. Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Lab, Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    S. Prasad

1 Electronic supplementary material

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Suppl. Fig. 1

Electronmicrograph of a pancreatic ductal cell displaying a monocilium on its luminal surface

Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 296 kb)

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Gupta, R., Saini, S., Sharma, S., Jacob, T.G., Roy, T.S. (2017). Morphology of the Human Pancreas During Development and Aging. In: Rath, P., Sharma, R., Prasad, S. (eds) Topics in Biomedical Gerontology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2155-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2155-8_4

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2155-8

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