Endocrine-paracrine cells of the male urogenital apparatus : a comparative histochemical and immunohistochemical study in some domestic Ungulates

Specimens of testis, excurrent duct including the male accessory glands and urethra, were studied in boars, bulls, horses and donkeys, in order to localize endocrine/paracrine cells. Silver impregnation methods were used to test the argentaffinity and/or argyrophilia of cells. Immunoreactivities to chromogranin A, 5-hydroxytryptamine, somatostatin, [met]- and [leu]- enkephalins, gastrin-releasing peptide, calcitonin gene-related peptide, neuropeptide Y. substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide, beta-endorphin antisera were tested by a streptavidin-biotin method. In the testis, epididymis, ductus deferens and vesicular gland no endocrine cells were found in any of the animals studied. Chromogranin-A, serotonin, somatostatin and enkephalins were present in endocrine/paracrine cells in the surface or glandular epithelia, whereas all other antisera gave negative results. In the prostatic complex and the urethral epithelium, the most consistent number of endocrine cells was serotonin-immunoreactive. Few cells were also argentaffin and a very limited number of them showed argyrophily and chromogranin-A immunoreactivity. Somatostatin-and enkephalin-immunoreactive cells were rare in the bull and boar, absent in stallions. This comparative study carried out on different species of domestic ungulates has shown deeply different immunophenotypes, even comparing species that are in a very close zoological relationship with one another, such as the horse and the donkey.