The morphology of the adrenal gland in the European bison (Bison bonasus)

Abstract

BackgroundThe anatomy of the adrenal glands has been widely studied in many species of domestic and wild mammals. However, there are no available literature reports describing the morphology and morphometry of the adrenal glands of the European bison (Bison bonasus).ResultsThe study was conducted on 97 European bison of both sexes. The growth of the adrenal glands corresponded to the growth of the whole body, with the largest increase in size occurring in the first 2 years of the animal’s life, followed by a slower increase in size until the animal was 5–7 years old. There were no statistically significant differences between ipsilateral adrenal glands of males and females with respect to age. There was no statistically significant difference in weight between the left and the right adrenal gland. However, there was a difference in the length, width and thickness of the two glands. Reference intervals for adrenal gland size and weight were computed separately for two bison age groups (up to 2 years of age and older than two years). The adrenal gland consisted of a cortex and a medulla. The connective-tissue capsule contained two layers. It had a fibrous structure and abundant adipose tissue. The cortex was divided into three zones. The zona glomerulosa contained cells arranged in bundles and curves. Numerous apoptotic cells were observed among regular cells in the zona reticularis. There were vacuoles in the cells of both zona fasciculata and zona reticularis, which formed a foamy cytoplasm. The adrenal medulla was composed of large, dark cells with a highly basophilic cytoplasm in the superficial region and of smaller, lighter cells in deeper layers. Sinusoidal vessels were located in the central part of the medulla.ConclusionsThe left adrenal gland was significantly longer, narrower and thinner than the right one. There were no significant differences in the structure of the adrenal medulla and cortex of the European bison compared to other species of domestic and wild mammals. There was a thick layer of adipose cells at numerous locations in the adrenal capsule of the bison.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-016-0783-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Peculiarities of microstructure of the suprarenal glands of rabbits with different types of autonomic tone

“…By contrast to rabbits, in cattle and some marine mammals, in the medulla, two types of cells located in the layers are distinguished. Epinephrocytes are located on the periphery of the medulla, and the norepinephrocytes in the centre (Clark et al, 2005;Vuković et al, 2010;Barszcz et al, 2016). Also shifts of the medulla towards the periphery of the gland were observed in 42% of ST rabbits.…”

“…These cells are also characterized by chaotic arrangement, though in the gland, subcapsular layer, central and peripheral zones are distinguished (Humayun et al, 2012;Ye et al, 2018). The glands of ruminants were studied in the age and sex aspects (Jelinek & Konecny, 2011;Fiadotau, 2015), and also with respect to breed (Paul et al, 2016) or species peculiarities (Barszcz et al, 2016). The mentioned factors also influence the structure of the suprarenal glands of numerous species of rodents (Sheikhian et al, 2014;Olukole et al, 2016;Santos et al, 2016;Finco & Hammer, 2018).…”

Mortality in free-ranging Eurasian brown bears (Ursus arctos arctos) in Spain '1998-2018'

“…In that animal necrotic myo bers with surviving satellite cells, invading macrophages and elongating myoblasts, all indicative of events of regeneration, were also observed ( Figure 2d). The cub also showed hypoplasia of adrenal glands (1.7 grams, 0.004% relative weight; physiological relative weight 0.03% [8]).…”

Histological and morphometric study of the uterus of the lowland bison

“…Szczególne miejsce w tym obszarze zajmuje rozród, który warunkuje trwanie i rozwój populacji. Pomimo że oryginalne opracowania morfologiczne poszczególnych układów oraz narządów żubra zawarte są w ponad 100 pozycjach piśmiennictwa, to narządom układu moczowo-płciowego poświęcono nieliczne prace (1,6,7,10,12,15,(17)(18)(19)(20). Na uwagę zasługuje fakt, iż morfologia narządów płciowych żeńskich wspomnianego gatunku, poza krótkimi wzmiankami, nie została szczegółowo opracowana (13).…”