THE ENDOCRINE PANCREAS OF THE CAPE FUR-SEAL, ARCTOCEPHALUS-PUSILLUS (SCHREBER, 1776) - AN IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICAL STUDY

The indirect peroxidase method was employed to study the endocrine pan creas of the Cape fur seal. Immunoreactivity to insulin was confined t o the cores of the islets and the insulin cells were more abundant tha n the other endocrine cell types, which occurred mainly in the mantles of the islets. Of these, glucagon cells were the most numerous, follo wed by somatostatin and pancreatic polypeptide (PP) cells. The latter were observed in the mantles of the islets and scattered in the exocri ne tissue of the duodenal lobe. The marked variation in the shape and the distribution of the endocrine cells in the mantles of the islets s een in the pancreas of the seal, seems to be typical of carnivorous sp ecies like the cat and dog.