title: Studies on the sacculant portion of the kidney of Biomphalaria glabrata Say (1818) as a haemopoietic organ.
abstract: The term immunity signifies all those properties of the host which confer resistance to a specific infectious agent. This resistance may be of all degrees ranging from complete to incomplete susceptibility. The defensive functions is performed by various cellular and humoral components which interact with each other producing a co-ordinated immune response directed towards eliminating the pathogen or minimizing its danger. Snails as other members of the Animal Kingdom have their own immune system. The present study concentrated on the sacculant portion of the kidney of B. glabrata as a haemopoietic stem cell. The histological picture of this portion in the kidney as well as in-vitro culture was studied. (I) The histological studies showed that (a) the sacculant portion constituted the last fifth of the kidney highly folded with primitive epithelial tissue, (b) amoebocytes (10.7 +/- 0.98m) rounded, oval or amoeboid, showing flattening and spreading when encapsulated around foreign particles, when doing so, both the cytoplasm and nucleus were more basophilic, (c) the haemocytes in the sacculant portion were distributed either as clustering forming amoebocytic plugs or dense aggregation or being normal in distribution (d) there was a significant correlation between haemocytic diameter and shell weight and between shell weight and shell diameter but no significant correlation between haemocytic diameter and shell diameter. (II) The in-vitro studies showed that (a) The medium 199 and fetal calf serum (3:1) produced higher number of granulocytes, (b) the cells differed in shape and size from those shown in histological studies of the kidney itself (c) the majority of the cells were large sized granulocytes and very few small sized hyalinocytes, (d) granulation of cytoplasm took place in the culture medium used more than in the sacculant portion, (e) only the smaller granulocytes showed greater ability for mitotic division. The results were photographed and discussed.
authors: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Al Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors: A A
authors: AA
authors: Rashed
authors: B L
authors: BL
authors: James
authors: K K
authors: KK
authors: Shehata
authors: A H
authors: AH
authors: Sabry
authors: K S
authors: KS
authors: Habib
authors: I M
authors: IM
authors: el Sharkawy
authors: T A
authors: TA
authors: Morsy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001700:Biomphalaria / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D046508:Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D006410:Hematopoiesis; D006434:Hemocytes / Q000166:cytology; D006458:Hemolymph / Q000166:cytology; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology