Ultrastructure and lectin cytochemistry of the cloacal pelvic glands in the male newtTriturus marmoratus marmoratus

✍ Scribed by Romo, Eva ;Paniagua, Ricardo ;Fraile, Benito ;De Miguel, Maria P.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 810 KB
• Volume: 254
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-276X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0185(19990201)254:2<196::aid-ar5>3.0.co;2-x

✦ Synopsis

The cloacal organ of Salamandridae species contains four glands: pelvic, dorsal, ventral, and Kingsbury's glands. Pelvic glands have been studied only by light microscopy with conventional methods, and consist of multiple tubular serous glands with a prismatic epithelium which contains numerous PAS positive secretory granules. The present report is an ultrastructural and lectin cytochemistry characterization of the pelvic glands of Triturus marmoratus marmoratus throughout the reproductive cycle. Our methods consisted of conventional electron microscopy, and colloidal-gold lectin cytochemistry of the following lectins: WGA, ConA, LcA, UEA-I, PNA, SBA, and HPA. In the prereproductive period, the glands showed a tall epithelium which consisted of two cell types, dark and clear cells, surrounded by elongated, myoepithelial cells. Both dark and clear cells showed the ultrastructural characteristics of secretory cells, and exhibited many secretory granules in the apical cytoplasm. Areas showing densely packed, degenerating cell organelles--which were not surrounded by membrane--were observed in the dark cells whereas the clear cells showed large heterolysosomes. In the postreproductive period the number of secretory granules decreased, the rough endoplasmic reticulum was less developed, and areas of degenerating organelles were absent. In addition, small basal cells appeared. The results of the lectin histochemistry study were similar in both reproductive periods. In the epithelial cells, the rough endoplasmic reticulum, the Golgi complex, and secretory granules exclusively labeled to ConA. In all cell types, the nuclei reacted to all lectins while the cytosol only reacted to LcA lectin. The ultrastructural and histochemical characteristics of the pelvic glands of T. marmoratus suggest that these glands could be homologous to the mammalian seminal vesicles and prostate.