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The morphology of the pineal gland of the yellow‐toothed cavy ( Galea Spixii Wagler, 1831) and red‐rumped agouti ( Dasyprocta leporina linnaeus, 1758)
Author(s) -
Câmara Felipe Venceslau,
Guimarães Lopes Igor Renno,
Benevides de Oliveira Gleidson,
Fernandes Bezerra Ferdinando Vinicius,
Matias de Oliveira Radan Elvis,
Oliveira Júnior Carlos Magno,
Rodrigues Silva Alexandre,
de Oliveira Moacir Franco
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.22519
Subject(s) - galea , pineal gland , biology , pinealocyte , anatomy , paraformaldehyde , ultrastructure , pathology , endocrinology , melatonin , medicine
The pineal gland is an endocrine gland found in all mammals. This article describes the morphology of this important gland in two species of Caviideae, namely the yellow‐toothed cavy and the red‐rumped agouti. Ten adult animals of the two species used in current analysis were retrieved from the Center for the Multiplication of Wild Animals (CEMAS/UFERSA) and euthanized. The glands were removed and photographed in situ and ex situ. They were fixed in a paraformaldehyde solution 4% or glutaraldehyde 2.5% solution and submitted to routine histological techniques respectively for light and scanning electron microscopy. Macroscopically, the pineal gland with its elongated structure may be found between the cerebral hemispheres facing the rostral colliculi. Microscopically, pinealocytes and some glia cells were predominant. Contrastingly, to the cavy's pineal gland, a capsule covered the organ in the agouti, with the emission of incomplete septa to the interior, which divided it into two lobules. Light and scanning electron microscopes failed to show calcareous concretions in the pineal gland. Based on the topography of the cavy's and agouti's pineal gland, it may be classified as supra‐callosum and ABC type. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:660–666, 2015 . © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.