Development of Human Pancreatic Innervation

Human pancreatic innervation is of particular interest due to its possible role in the pathogenesis of such diseases as diabetes mellitus, pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Despite the clinical importance, data concerning pancreatic innervation during human ontogeny and in various disorders are very limited. In this chapter, we present a review on human pancreatic autonomic innervation on the basis of the literature data and our previous results. Special attention is paid to the innervation of the endocrine pancreas. Gradual branching of neural network was seen during human pancreatic development. Innervation of the foetal pancreas is more abundant than in adults. In agreement with previous observations, we have revealed a close integration and similarity between endocrine cells and nervous elements in the developing human pancreas. Moreover, simultaneous interactions between the nervous system components, epithelial cells and endocrine cells were detected in the pancreas during prenatal human development. It has been suggested that pancreatic innervation plays an important role not only in regulation of endocrine and exocrine activity but also in normal islet morphogenesis. study was performed on a collection of pancreatic autopsies, which allows us to explore the features of intrapancreatic innervation directly in humans using a variety of methods: classical histology; immunohistochemistry; light, fluorescent and confocal microscopy; morpho-and stereometry; statistical analysis; 3D histology; and computer reconstruction. The study was performed on 50 pancreatic autopsies of foetuses from the 10th to 40th gestational week (g.w.). Foetal pancreatic autopsies were divided into four groups according to the classifica