Enterochromaffin-like cell
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Enterochromaffin-like cells or ECL cells are a type of neuroendocrine cells found in the gastric mucosa beneath the epithelium, particularly in the vicinity of parietal cells.
ECL cells synthesize and secrete histamine being stimulated by the hormones gastrin, acetylcholine and pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating peptide. Gastrin is transferred from a specific type of G cells in the gastric epithelium to the ECL cells by blood. Histamine and gastrin act sinergistically as the most important stimulators of hydrochloric acid secretion from parietal cells and and also stimulate release of different pepsins from oxyntic cells. Enterochrommafin-like cells also produce pancreastatin and probably other peptide hormones and growth factors. In histologic sections, they can be presented by silver staining.
A prolonged stimulation of these cells causes their hyperplasia. This is especially important in gastrinoma (the tumors in which there is an excessive secretion of gastrin), as this is one of the factors contributing to Zollinger-Ellison's syndrome. Tumors of ECL origin form after a prolonged inhibition of gastric acid secretion.
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