Cutaneous Eccrine Glands of the Foot Pads of the Rock Hyrax (<i>Procavia capensis</i>, Hyracoidea, Mammalia)

Abstract

In order to find correlations between skin gland morphology and specific ethological features, the cutaneous glands of the foot pads of Procavia capensis were studied by histological and various histochemical methods and by electron microscopy. In the foot pads, abundant specific eccrine skin glands occur, which consist of coiled tubular secretory portions and coiled ducts. The wall of the secretory part is composed of cuboidal glandular cells and myoepithelial cells. Among the glandular cells two types occur: clear and dark cells. Clear cells have numerous mitochondria and form a basal labyrinth, indicating fluid transport. Dark cells, which stain strongly with periodic acid-Schiff, contain a highly developed perinuclear Golgi apparatus, large amounts of rough endoplasmic reticulum and many secretory granules indicating production of glycoproteins. Cytokeratin (CK) 19 was found in secretory compartments and ducts, CK14 only in duct cells. Single cells of the secretory coils and ducts may be stained with antibodies against antimicrobial peptides. Some glandular cells contain proliferating cell nuclear antigen-positive nuclei especially in the ducts indicating an increased cell proliferation. Terminal transferase (TdT)-mediated d-UTP nick-end labeling-positive nuclei can be detected predominantly in the secretory coils and rarely in the transitional portions between ducts and end pieces. We suppose that proliferating cells migrate from the ducts to the secretory coils. The secretory product of the eccrine cutaneous glands seems to improve the traction between the foot pads of these animals and the steep and smooth rock formations among which they live.

Ultracytochemistry of glycoproteins in the eccrine nasolabial glands of the North American raccoon (Procyon lotor)

“…This observation compares to findings on this gland type in the foot pads of other carnivores and of hyraxes (e.g. Meyer and Bartels 1989;Stumpf and Welsch 2002;Yasui et al 2004Yasui et al , 2005a, but less to those achieved from such glands in the nasolabial region of ruminants (Tsukise et al 1988b;Yasui et al 2005c). Additionally, the dark cells of the raccoon nasolabial glands appeared to contain higher numbers of secretory granules, than such glands in the digital pads of this species (Yasui et al 2004(Yasui et al , 2005a.…”

Matrigel basement membrane matrix induces eccrine sweat gland cells to reconstitute sweat gland-like structures in nude mice

“…Previous research has demonstrated that human native eccrine sweat glands express cytokeratins, EMA, CEA, α-SMA, Na + -K + -ATPase, Na + -K + -2Cl-cotransporter, and so on, with myoepithelial cells expressing CK5, CK7, CK14, CK17, vimentin and Į-SMA, ducts expressing CK1, CK5, CK10, CK11, CK14 and CK19, and secretory cells expressing CK7, CK8, CK18 and CK19 (Eckert et al 1992;Schon et al 1999;Saga 2002;Stumpf and Welsch 2002;Li et al 2009). Our tubular-like structures express P-CK, CK5, CK7, CK14, CK19, α-SMA and CEA, and the localization of these proteins is similar to that seen in native human eccrine sweat glands, demonstrating that the Matrigel-embedded tubular-like structures are reconstituted eccrine sweat glands.…”

Cutaneous eccrine glands of the foot pads of the small Madagascan tenrec ( Echinops telfairi, Insectivora, Tenrecidae): skin glands in a primitive mammal

“…In human tissues, eccrine glands do not express lysozyme, but apocrine glands may have a bactericidal function (Campbell et al 1982;Ezoe and Katsumata 1990) by expressing lysozyme. As in Echinops the eccrine glands of Procavia also express lysozyme and defensin (Stumpf and Welsch 2002). Both proteins may have a synergistic effect in their antibacterial activity.…”

“…This cytokeratin is expressed mainly in socalled simple epithelia, including human mammary epithelium and apocrine cutaneous gland epithelium of the human axilla (Moll et al 1982), and was also found in eccrine glands of the relatively primitive hyrax Procavia (Stumpf and Welsch 2002). In apocrine skin glands, e.g., impala (Welsch et al 1998a) and aardwolf (Stöckelhuber et al 2000), the distribution of the immunoreactivity of CK14 and CK19 within the secretory cells is usually different from that of the eccrine glands of Echinops.…”