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01-12-2010 | Original Article

Vascular system of human fetal pancreas demonstrated by corrosion casting and scanning electron microscopy

Authors: Janusz Gorczyca, Jan A. Litwin, Kazimierz Pitynski, Adam J. Miodonski

Published in: Anatomical Science International | Issue 4/2010

Abstract

Vascular architecture of the human pancreas was investigated by corrosion casting combined with scanning electron microscopy in fetuses aged 20 and 25 gestational weeks. The general pattern of the microvascular system was similar to that of the postnatal pancreas, with an evident insulo-acinar portal system and with three types of capillary networks: capillaries of exocrine lobules, islet capillaries and periductal capillaries around large ducts located in the interlobular septa. All these capillary networks were supplied by arteriolar branches of the interlobular arteries. As compared with the postnatal pancreas, capillaries of exocrine lobules formed denser meshworks, had a more sinusoidal character and revealed morphological features indicative of angiogenesis (blind capillary sprouts). The number of efferent (portal) capillaries per islet was lower and the predominant pattern of islet vasculature was top to bottom rather than inner to outer, as observed in adults. These results show that in the second trimester the human pancreatic vascular architecture is almost completely developed and requires only minor remodeling to be fully functional in the postnatal period.

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Title: Vascular system of human fetal pancreas demonstrated by corrosion casting and scanning electron microscopy
Authors: Janusz Gorczyca
Jan A. Litwin
Kazimierz Pitynski
Adam J. Miodonski
Publication date: 01-12-2010
Publisher: Springer Japan
Published in: Anatomical Science International / Issue 4/2010
Print ISSN: 1447-6959
Electronic ISSN: 1447-073X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12565-010-0084-4

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Vascular system of human fetal pancreas demonstrated by corrosion casting and scanning electron microscopy

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