Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Aug 25;59(3):2521.
doi: 10.4081/ejh.2015.2521.

Heterogeneous vesicles in mucous epithelial cells of posterior esophagus of Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus)

H Zhang  1 , X Guo, S Zhong, T Ge, S Peng, P Yu, Z Zhou
Affiliations

Heterogeneous vesicles in mucous epithelial cells of posterior esophagus of Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus)

H Zhang et al. Eur J Histochem. .

Abstract

The Chinese giant salamander belongs to an old lineage of salamanders and endangered species. Many studies of breeding and disease regarding this amphibian had been implemented. However, the studies on the ultrastructure of this amphibian are rare. In this work, we provide a histological and ultrastructural investigation on posterior esophagus of Chinese giant salamander. The sections of amphibian esophagus were stained by hematoxylin & eosin (H&E). Moreover, the esophageal epithelium was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results showed that esophageal epithelium was a single layer epithelium, which consisted of mucous cells and columnar cells. The esophageal glands were present in submucosa. The columnar cells were ciliated. According to the diverging ultrastructure of mucous vesicles, three types of mucous cells could be identified in the esophageal mucosa: i) electron-lucent vesicles mucous cell (ELV-MC); ii) electron-dense vesicles mucous cell (EDV-MC); and iii) mixed vesicles mucous cell (MV-MC).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: the authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematic diagrams of the esophageal epithelium and cilia. ELV-MC, electronlucent vesicles mucous cell; EDV-MC, electron-dense vesicles mucous cell; MV-MC, mixed vesicles mucous cell; CC, columnar cell; C, cilia; cm, ciliary membrane; ca, ciliary axoneme; cp, ciliary pocket; bp, basal plate; N, nucleus.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Histology of the esophagus. Panel B shows detail of epithelial cells. M, mucosa; SM, submucosa; ME, muscularis externa; MC, mucous cell. The arrows denote esophageal glands.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Three type mucous cells are present in esophageal epithelium. I, ELV-MC; II, EDV-MC; III, MV-MC; CC, columnar cell; C, cilia.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
A) Structure of type I mucous cells (ELV-MC), columnar cell (CC). B) Detail of the cilia (C) are inserted in narrow sags of the cell apex by two electrondense cilialy rootlets (CR); two CR are connected by an electron-dense basal plate (arrow); two CR and a basal plate form a ´H´ type frame to facilitate fixation of axoneme; the ciliary axoneme extends from the basal plate. Arrowhead, ciliary membrane.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Higher magnification micrographs showing detail of a section of epithelium containing various mucous cells based on their heterogeneous vesicles. I, ELV-MC; II, EDV-MC; III, MV-MC.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Higher magnification micrographs showing detail of vesicles of EDV-MC. Two kinds of high electron-dense materials were present in the vesicles of EDV-MC, namely off-centered, fingerprint-like material (asterisk) and irregular thread material (star).
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Higher magnification micrographs showing detail of vesicles of EDV-MC with a high electron-dense, off-centered fingerprint-like material.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Stuart SN, Chanson JS, Cox NA, Young BE, Rodrigues AS, Fischman DL, Waller RW. Status and trends of amphibian declines and extinctions worldwide. Science 2004;306:1783-6. - PubMed
    1. Gomes A, Giri B, Saha A, Mishra R, Dasgupta SC, Debnath A, Gomes A. Bioactive molecules from amphibian skin: their biological activities with reference to therapeutic potentials for possible drug development. Indian J Exp Biol 2007;45:579-93. - PubMed
    1. Murphy RW, Fu J, Upton DE, de Lema T, Zhao EM. Genetic variability among endangered Chinese giant salamanders, Andrias davidianus. Mol Ecol 2000;9:1539-47. - PubMed
    1. Xie F, Lau MW, Stuart SN, Chanson JS, Cox NA, Fischman DL. Conservation needs of amphibians in China: a review. Sci China C Life Sci 2007;50:265-76. - PubMed
    1. Wang L, Yang H, Li F, Zhang Y, Yang Z, Li Y, Liu X. Molecular characterization, tissue distribution and functional analysis of macrophage migration inhibitory factor protein (MIF) in Chinese giant salamanders Andrias davidianus. Dev Comp Immunol 2013;39:161-8. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources