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CHANGES WITH AGES IN THE PROPORTION OF NUCLEATED RED BLOOD CELL TYPES AND IN THE TYPE OF HAEMOGLOBIN IN KANGAROO POUCH YOUNG
Author(s) -
Richardson BJ,
Russell Eleanor M
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
australian journal of experimental biology and medical science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.999
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1440-1711
pISSN - 0004-945X
DOI - 10.1038/icb.1969.151
Subject(s) - biology , macropus , pouch , andrology , eosinophil , population , zoology , anatomy , marsupial , immunology , medicine , environmental health , asthma
Summary Blood samples and smears were collected from variously aged pouch young of the red kangaroo ( Megaleia rufa ), the grey kangaroo ( Macropus giganteus ) and the euro ( Macropus robustus ). Starch gel electrophoresis at pH 6.5 showed a polymorphism in the haemoglobin. One form was found in animals of all ages, and was the normal adult haemoglobin. The other form, found intermittently in pouch young fewer than 70 days old, was taken to be a foetal or embryonic haemoglobin. Blood smears were examined for any changes in red cells which could be correlated with the results of electrophoresis. Numbers of nucleated eosinophil megaloblasts were high at birth and declined rapidly thereafter, virtually disappearing by the thirtieth day. As eosinophil megaloblasts disappeared, definitive erythroblasts and erythrocytes increased. Nucleated erythroblasts, initially conspicuous, had all but disappeared by 100 days. There was no correlation between the changes in haemoglobin type and in the red cell population. Foetal haemoglobin was not restricted to megaloblasts in kangaroos, but was also present in erythroblasts and erythrocytes. The relationship between embryonic and foetal haemoglobin in kangaroos is discussed.