Localization of alkaline and acid phosphatase activity in the intestine of healthy breams ( Abramis brama L.) and those infected with plerocercoid of tapeworm Ligula intestinalis ( Linné 1758)

Abstract

The examination included 40 breams 4 to 7 years old (18 infected and 22 uninfected). Alkaline and acid phosphatase activity, as shown by the azo-coupling method, has been localized in the oesophagus and the intestine, being the strongest in the epithelium. It was distinctly less intensive in the Lamina propria mucosae and in the intermuscular connective tissue of the oesophagus, in the submucosa, in the cells of AUERBACH plexus and in the blood vessel walls. Besides only the acid phosphatase activity was noted in single (sometimes rather numerous) spherical cells - visible within the epithelium and Lamina propria mucosae. The cells are known as the components of so called "yellow bodies" (melanine macrophage centers) entering particular numerously in the spleen and in the pronephric kidney of infected breams. The activity of both enzymes in the epithelium was considerably weaker in the last third of the intestine, and none in cloaca and in Tunica muscularis all over the length of the intestine (and oesophagus) except for some cells of the connective tissue separating the layers of muscle fibres. No perceptible differences in the activity and localization of both enzymes in the intestine were observed between infected and uninfected fishes examined in different seasons of the year.