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Received: 22 Oct, 2018 Revised: 14 Jan., 2019 Accepted: 15 Jan., 2019
ABSTRACT
The spleen morphology of the African Giant pouch rat from the rainforest vegetative region of Nigeria was investigated to establish is basic biology as there dearth of information on it from available literature. Grossly, the spleen was shaped like an elongated triangle, with the two ventral sides of the triangle forming a hilus at the apex of their both convergence. This hilus served as the site of entry and exist of blood vessels and nerves. Microscopically, the spleen was covered by a capsule of connective tissue. The parenchyma was composed mainly of red pulp and isolated areas of white pulp. The red pulp contained splenic cords, sinusoids and other vessels. The white pulp contained the periarteriolar lymphatic sheath which presented a germinal centre, marginal zone and eccentrically located artery surrounded by small lymphocytes. The microanatomy of the spleen revealed an organ involved in blood storage, blood purification and body immune response. This paper will fill the knowledge gap and serve as baseline data for further investigative research.
Keywords: Spleen, histology, red pulp, white pulp, blood storage.
The spleen is a flaccid bag that serves as a storage site for blood, haemopoeisis and a processing station for the scavenging of aged erythrocytes (Ibe et al, 2010). It is the largest lymphoid organ and the most important organ of immunological defense for the blood including phagocytosis and removal of blood parasites (Chen and Weiss, 1973; Pabst, 1993). The mammalian spleen is covered by a capsule of connective tissue (Zidan et al, 2000). The mammalian splenic parenchyma consists mostly of red pulp and few areas of white pulp (Corbin et al, 2008). The red pulp contains erythrocytes organized into splenic cords and venous sinuses. The splenic cords are composed of reticular fibers, reticular cells, and associated macrophages (Saito et al, 1988). The white pulp consists of mainly of B- lymphocytes arranged into periarteriolar lymphocyte sheath -PALS, and macrophages (Bacha et al, 1990).
The morphology of the spleen has been documented in the one humped Camel (Zidan et al, 2000); mice (Tanaka, et al. 1996); man (Satoh et al., 1997); in cats and ruminants (Brown & Dellmann, 1976); but there is dearth of information on...