Chromaffin Cells


Chromaffin Cells


in humans and other vertebrates, endocrine cells that elaborate adrenaline, noradrenaline, and probably a number of other catecholamines contained in their cytoplasmic granules; the cells secrete these substances into the blood. Chromaffin cells are derived from neural ectoderm. After fixation with chromium salts, the cells acquire a dark-brown color, hence the name “chromaffin.” The aggregate of chromaffin cells in the body make up the adrenal system.

In humans and other higher vertebrates the cells are polygonal or irregular, sometimes having barely perceptible appendages that are entwined with the capillaries and form aggregates— paraganglia—in various parts of the body (near the nerve ganglia and fibers, in the region of the cervicothoracic vessels, and in the parenchyma of organs). The largest aggregate of chromaffin cells is the adrenal medulla. The elaboration and discharge of neurohormones from the cytoplasmic granules into the blood are regulated by neuromechanisms. In lower vertebrates the chromaffin cells have many appendages and are diffused in the walls of the large arteries of the trunk and deep within the cardiac muscle; discharge of hormones from the cytoplasmic granules is continuous. Chromaffin cells have also been discovered in invertebrates, for example, in the ganglia of the ventral nerve cord in annelid worms.


See references under PARAGANGLIA.


References in periodicals archive ?
8 mg (14 [micro]mol)/kg bw BDE-47 via a metal gastric tube on postnatal day (PND) 10 for field-excitatory postsynaptic potential (f-EPSP) recordings and brain protein analysis, or 68 mg (140 [micro]mol)/kg bw BDE-47 for amperometric recordings of chromaffin cells (to investigate presynaptic effects) at PND17-19.
Inside the filter holder are three nylon filters sandwiching a single glass fiber filter on which the chromaffin cells are located.
As before, Lindau's group will place a chromaffin cell in the microelectrode array and locate the secretion event.
Hains BC, Chastain KM, Everhart AW, McAdoo DJ, Hulsebosch CE, "Transplants of Adrenal Medullary Chromaffin Cells Reduce Fore Limb and Hind Limb Allodynia in a Rodent Model of Chronic Central Pain after Spinal Cord Hemisection Injury", Exp.
There is evidence to suggest that the plasticity of chromaffin cells declines during development, which may overlap or be the same as early stages of ageing |17, 18~.
Catecholamine-producing tumors are neuroendocrine tumors that affect the chromaffin cells of adrenal medulla and postganglionic fibers of the sympathetic nervous system.
INTRODUCTION: Phaeochromocytoma, a tumour of the adrenal medulla, deriving from chromaffin cells produces catecholamines.
Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGLs) [3] are neuroendocrine tumors arising from adrenal and extraadrenal chromaffin cells, respectively (1).
Pheochromocytoma (PCC) is a catecholamine-secreting tumour from chromaffin cells of the embryonic neural crest.
True (A) or false (B)--click on the correct answer: approximately 85% of phaeochromocytomas arise from chromaffin cells in the adrenal medulla.
Voltage-sensitive calcium flux into bovine chromaffin cells occurs through dihydropyridine-sensitive and dihydropyridine- and omega-conotoxin-insensitive pathways.