Histochemistry and Enzymology

Abstract

Coupland (1965) has remarked that the ability of chromaffin cells to synthesize and store catecholamines sets them apart from other tissues and is responsible for many of their histochemical reactions. It will be shown that the chemoreceptor cells possess a similar complement of tissue and enzyme histochemical responses, which are also dependent on the presence of biogenic monamines and common metabolic pathways (Table 4-1). Thus the division into chromaffin and nonchromaffin paraganglia was a distinction made with conventional light microscopy and is unsupported by modern histochemical techniques. The term nonchromaffin paraganglia is at present validated primarily by historical usage.