Authors : Leren Xu , Xiaozhen Yang , Denghui Gao and Ping Jiang
Abstract: Mast cells were firstly identified in the tissues of grass fish (Ctenopharyngodon idella ) and cat fish (Claris fuscus lacepede) histochemically and morphologically. Mast cells were found in the mucosa and submucosa of the intestine and in the lymphoid organs including thymus, head kidney and spleen in the two species which intended to adjacent to blood vessels. It seemed that the staining properties of the mast cells in grass fish and cat fish were similar to the mucosal mast cells in mammals in some aspects. Carnoy=s fluid and Alcian blue were proved to be the good fixative and the excellent dye for the mast cells, respectively, but fixation in neutral buffered formalin (NBF) and stained with toluidine blue were unsatisfactory. Some other histochemical methods previously have been used by some investigators to detect mast cells, or so called eosinophilic granule cells (EGCs) in teleostean fish, were failed to identify mast cells in the two species of fish in the present study. Under electron microscopy, the mast cells in grass fish and cat fish were similar which contained characteristic cytogranules
Leren Xu , Xiaozhen Yang , Denghui Gao and Ping Jiang , 2003. Mast Cells in Two Species of Freshwater Fishes, Grass Fish (Ctenopharyngodon idella) and Cat Fish (Claris fuscus lacepede) . Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 2: 191-195.