The role of the heart-body and of the extravasal tissue in disposal of foreign cells in two polychaete annelids.
Sheep red cells injected into the coelom of the polychaetes Neoamphitrite figulus and Arenicola marina are phagocytosed by coelomocytes and conveyed to the heart-body and extravasal ('chloragogen') tissue respectively. In the former case the phagocytes creep into the vessels, penetrate the heart-body tissue and bequeath the sheep red cells to the heart body cells. In Arenicola the phagocytes accumulate on the tips of the blind ending vessels and the red cells are similarly transferred to the extravasal tissues. These observations confirm that the heart-body and extravasal cells function not only in production of haemoglobin but in sequestering foreign material.
D000818:Animals; D004912:Erythrocytes; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D011077:Polychaeta / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D012756:Sheep