Non-keratinocytes of Egyptian Camel (Camelus dromedarius)

Abstract

The skin of five male Egyptian camels (Camelus dromedarius) between 10 and15 years old and five male camels between 3 and5 years old were collected and prepared for transmission electron microscopy to study the non- keratinocytes. The melanocytes of camel skin were more numerous in adult camels than in young ones, with a higher number of melanin granules in adults. Merkel cells of camel skin had lobulated nuclei mainly in adult camels, which had also a higher number of dense cored granules than the young ones. But intranuclear rodlets were observed only in young camel skin. The Langerhans cells of adult camel skin were greater in number than in young ones. Round nuclei of Merkel cells were seen only in adult skin. Langerhans cell granules were detected but without a clear racquet shape: rod shapes only could be detected in cross, oblique and longitudinal sections and they were surrounded by a trilaminar membrane. The Langerhans cell granules were few in number inside each cell. All these findings might suggest that the skin is well adapted to protect the animal against harmful effect of the ultraviolet rays of the Egyptian desert environment. This effect mainly increased with age.