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Morphological development of testes in ostrich (Struthio camelus) embryo

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Abstract

Although the histological structure of ostrich testis has been studied, very little information is currently available on the embryonic development of this organ. The aim of this study was to determine the sequence of the histological changes in diverse components of the testis in ostrich embryo from embryonic day (E) 20 to E42. The main findings were categorized into four histological features, i.e., development of sex cords, interstitial tissue and rete ducts, and the appearance of defective septa. While the lumen of sex cords, tunica albuginea, capsular rete ducts and Leydig cell precursors appeared at E26, the filum-shaped defective septa were visible at E36. The emersion of the lumen in the primary sex cords and formation of capsular rete ducts in the ostrich embryo is considerably different from that in other birds. However, tunica albuginea and Leydig cell precursors appeared in a similar pattern to those of other birds. An interesting observation was that the primordial germ cell (PGC)-like cells were completely distinct, while the capsular rete ducts were formed by trapping of some Sertoli cell aggregations in the tunica albuginea. This suggests that similar to the primary sex cords, the capsular rete ducts may originate from the Sertoli cell aggregations which had corralled some PGCs. Stereological estimations in the ostrich embryo testis showed the major proportion of testis is occupied by the seminiferous tubules, which is unlike the fowl embryo testis.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been supported by a grant (No. 881) from the Research Council of the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. We especially thank Mrs. Naseri (Central lab of FUM), Dr. J. Sadeghinezhad and Dr. J. Ashrafi Helan for their invaluable help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Basic Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

    Belal Hassanzadeh, Abolghasem Nabipour & Hesam Dehghani

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

    Morteza Behnam Rassouli

  3. Embryonic and Stem Cell Biology and Biotechnology Research Group, Research Institute of Biotechnology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

    Hesam Dehghani

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  1. Belal Hassanzadeh
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  2. Abolghasem Nabipour
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  3. Morteza Behnam Rassouli
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  4. Hesam Dehghani
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Correspondence to Abolghasem Nabipour.

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Hassanzadeh, B., Nabipour, A., Behnam Rassouli, M. et al. Morphological development of testes in ostrich (Struthio camelus) embryo. Anat Sci Int 89, 129–139 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12565-013-0207-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12565-013-0207-9

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