Early, selective, and marked loss of sympathetic nerves from the islets of BioBreeder diabetic rats.
To discover whether islet sympathetic nerves are damaged during the autoimmune destruction of islet B-cells, we immunostained sections of pancreas from BioBreeder (BB) diabetic rats, using antibodies against vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), a marker of sympathetic nerve terminals. We found a marked decrease in the VMAT2-positive fiber area in the islets of BB rats that had been diabetic