Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T01:02:47.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is Rhabdospora thelohani (Laguesse) a sporozoan parasite or a tissue cell of lower vertebrates?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

L. H. Bannister
L. H. Bannister
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Guy's Hospital Medical School, London, S.E. 1
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

An examination with light and electron microscopes has been made of the cell type which is considered by some authors to be a sporozoan parasite, Rhabdospora thelohani, and by others to be a tissue cell of fishes and amphibians.

The cell type was found in the minnow Phoxinus phoxinus in many tissue sites, including olfactory and pharygneal epithelia, kidney, eyes and brain. In some specimens it could not be found in any tissue.

The cell has a thick fibrous wall, a basal nucleus, an apical mitochondrial zone, a Golgi body, and from 8 to 50 characteristic refractile rodlets.

The rodlets give a negative reaction to the Feulgen test for nuclear material, but are positive to the periodic acid–Schiff stain, a test for polysaccharide. Glycogen does not appear to be present in the rodlets.

Under certain circumstances the rods rupture the cell wall and may protrude in the apical region of the cell.

The structures described are discussed with the evidence for and against a parasitic interpretation of the cell. It is concluded that Rhabdospora is a protozoan parasite, whose exact functional and taxonomic status is as yet unknown.

I am grateful to Professor G. E. H. Foxon and to Professor P. C. C. Garnham for their encouragement, advice, and helpful criticism of the manuscript. I am further indebted to the National Spastics Society for the use of the electron microscope housed in Guy&s Hospital Medical School, and to Mr I. D. Bradbrook for his assistance with the histological techniques.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , November 1966 , pp. 633 - 638
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Al-Hussaini, A. H. (1949 a). On the functional morphology of the alimentary tract of some fish in relation to differences in their feeding habits: anatomy and histology. Q. Jl microse. Sci. 90, 109–39.Google ScholarPubMed
Al-Hussaini, A. H. (1949 b). On the functional morphology of the alimentary tract of some fish in relation to differences in their feeding habits: cytology and physiology. Q. Jl microsc. Sci. 90, 323–54.Google Scholar
Bannister, L. H. (1965). The structure of Rhabdospora thelohani, a parasitic protozoan of uncertain affinities. Intern. Congr. Ser. 91, 130. Amsterdam: Excerpta Med.Google Scholar
Bullock, W. L. (1963). Intestinal histology of some salmonid fishes with particular reference to the histopathology of acanthocephalan infections. J. Morph. 112, 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duthie, E. S. (1939). The origin, development and function of the blood cells in certain marine teleosts. I. Morphology. J. Anat. 73, 396–412.Google ScholarPubMed
Hale, P. A. (1965). The morphology and histology of the digestive systems of two freshwater teleosts, Poecilia reticulata and Gasterosteus aculeatus. J. Zool. 146, 132–49.Google Scholar
Klust, G. (1939). Über Entwicklung, Bau und Funktion des Darmes beim Karpfen (Cyprinus carpio L.). Int. Rev. Hydrobiol. 39, 498–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laguesse, E. (1892). Sur les burgeons paneréatiques accessoires et l'origine du canal pancréatique chez les poissons. C. r. Séanc. Soc. Biol. 5, 402–04.Google Scholar
Laguesse, E. (1895). Sur le pancréas du Crénilabre et particulièrement sur le pancréas hépatique. Rev. biol. Nord France 7, 343–63.Google Scholar
Laguesse, E. (1906). Les ‘Stäbchendrüsenzellen’ (M. Plehn) sont des Sporozoares parasites. Anat. Anz. 28, 414–16.Google Scholar
Laibach, E. (1937). Das Geruchsorgan des Aals (Anguilla vulgaris) in semen verschiedenen Entwicklungsstadien. Zool. Jb. (Abt. Anat.). 63, 37–72.Google Scholar
Millonig, G. (1961). Advantages of a phosphate buffer for OsO4 solutions in fixation. J. appl. Phys. 32, 1637.Google Scholar
Pitelka, D. R. (1963). Electron-Microscope Structure of Protozoa. Oxford: Pergamon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plehn, M. (1906 a). Über eigentümliche Drüsenzellen im Gefässsystem und in anderen Organen bei Fischen. Anat. Anz. 28, 192–203.Google Scholar
Plehn, M. (1906 b). Drüsenzellen oder Parasiten? Anat. Anz. 29, 152–56.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. D., Bonenheimer, T. S., & Stage, D. E. (1963). The ultrastructure of Mauthner synapses and nodes in goldfish brain. J. Cell Biol. 19, 159–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thélohan, P. (1892). Sur des Sporozoaires indéterminés parasites des poissons. J. Anat. Physiol. Paris 28, 163–71.Google Scholar
Westrum, L. E. (1965). A combination staining technique for electron microscopy. J. Microscopie 4, 275–78.Google Scholar