An Electron Microscopic study of the liver in certain marine teleosts

Abstract

The hepatic parenchyma of five marine teleosts (belonging to five families in the Teleostei) was investiga ted during the summer months by means of light and transmission electron microscopy. The architectural organization of the livers of these teleosts displays remarkable differences with regard to the interrelationship with the pancreatic tissue. In Lates calcarifer and Lutjanus bohar, prominent pancreatic tissue is found in the liver, following the course of portal vein and hepatic artery and surrounding the branches of these vessels. The pancreatic tissue appears less abundant in Mylio macrocephalus than in the preceding species. In Siganus javus and Gymnothorax schismatorhynchus, there are no dispersed intrahepatic pancreas. The liver lobules are defined by the presence of connective tissue strands in Lates and Siganus, but in the other three species there was no precise lobulation of the hepatic tissue.The microstructure of the livers in these teleosts is basically the same in all cases, although there are considerable variations inultrastructure of their parenchymal cells. The plates of hepatocytes which are usually two or more cells thick is in terrupted by sinusoids lined with fenestrated endothelial cells and Kupffer cells (Figs. 1, 2).