ABSTRACT
The aims of the study are to monitor the structural changes in the rat pancreatic tissue after surgical sympathectomy and assess its effect on the pancreatic endocrine function. Twelve animals were used in this study. All animals had surgical sympathectomy. The morphological changes of the islets of Langerhans and the pancreatic acini were studied under the light microscope, 2 and 3 weeks after surgery. Glucose tolerance test and fasting blood sugar levels were monitored at different intervals of time after sympathectomy. The microscopic examination of the pancreatic tissue after sympathectomy showed histological changes, in the form of general atrophy and pancreatic cell degeneration. Furthermore, the fasting blood glucose levels and the glucose tolerance tests were significantly increased. The results of this study demonstrated that the pancreatic function in rats is dependent on the sympathetic innervations,and the metabolic and histologicalabnormalities were observed after surgical sympathectomy. The structural changes in the pancreatic acini and the islets of Langerhans after vagotomy and sympathectomy may explain the failure of pancreatic cell transplantation and the metabolic abnormalities that accompany the neurogenic shockin humans