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Electron microscopic study on the thyroid gland of the salamander Hynobius nebulosus in the breeding season

I. Observation under normal conditions

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Summary

The thyroid gland of adult salamanders, Hynobius nebulosus, in the breeding season was studied by electron microscopy. The follicular cells are different in cell height and fine structures; the taller cells with many cell organelles and granules and the lower cells with a few cell organelles and granules are both present in the same follicle. In the cytoplasm, three types of membrane-bounded granules, namely, cytosomes, colloid droplets, and vacuolar bodies and circular membrane complexes occur. The vacuolar bodies are subdivided into two types; the ordinary type having loosely distributed particles and the specific type containing tubules and/or closely packed filaments, crystalloid structures, except for the particles. The chromophobe colloids within the Bensley-cells correspond to extremely large, ordinary type vacuolar bodies, while the Langendorff-colloid cells possess increased numbers of granular cisternae of endoplasmic reticulum and a ribosome-rich, dense cytoplasmic matrix but not extremely large colloid. The intracytoplasmic circular membrane complexes appear in the Golgi area of cytosome-rich cells. It is suggested that they originate from the Golgi apparatus which was activated to produce many cytosomes. Intranuclear inclusions consisting of microtubules and filaments and tight junctions between two adjacent lateral plasma membranes are occasionally encountered.

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  1. Department of Anatomy, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Nagasaki, Japan

    Takao Setoguti

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  1. Takao Setoguti
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Setoguti, T. Electron microscopic study on the thyroid gland of the salamander Hynobius nebulosus in the breeding season. Z. Zellforsch 137, 177–194 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00307429

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