ISSN:
0362-2525
Keywords:
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
This is the last of a series of observations involved in a comparative histological study of the ultimobranchial body in vertebrates. Complete serial longitudinal or transverse paraffin sections were made of formol alcohol, Bouin's, and formalin-fixed ultimobranchial and thyroid tissues that had been removed from adult specimens of the cat, cotton rat, ground squirrel, Guinea pig, kangaroo rat, bushytailed wood rat, rabbit, and raccoon. The alcian blue-PAS, aldehyde fuchsin-alcian blue, mucicarmine, alcian blue-safranin, Best's carmine, and toluidine blue staining procedures show that the glandular mammalian ultimobranchial tissue is capable of producing considerable amounts of various mucosubstances, particularly the acid mucopolysaccharides, and other carbohydrate-containing materials. The carbohydrate moiety has been histochemically identified as mucopolysaccharides possessing acidic groups, those having both carboxyl and ester sulfate groups; and as glycogen, muco-and glycoproteins and other carbohydrate-protein complexes. The differences in the intensity and localization of a given staining reaction reflect not only individual and species variations but also significant differences in the position of the ultimobranchial tissue in relation to the thyroid gland. An accessory thyroid lobule found near parathyroid IV and thymus IV in a bushy-tailed wood rat may represent a cystic manifestation of the ultimobranchial body because its follicles varied greatly in size and were lined by a thick stratified squamous epithelium. The possible hormonal mechanisms (TSH, thyroxine) involved in the regulation of ultimobranchial activity are discussed in relation to the gland's production, storage, and release of mucopolysaccharides and other secretory substances.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmor.1051200407
Permalink
