Anatomical and histological characteristics of the spleen of the eastern European hedgehog in postnatal ontogenesis

Abstract

The aim of the research was to study the anatomical and histological features of the structure of the East European hedgehog (Erinaceus concolor Linnaeus, 1758) in postnatal ontogenesis. When conducting scientific research, 5 animals in each age group were used, which led to the study of 20 hedgehogs in order to establish the anatomical, topographic, morphometric and histological features of the spleen in the most important periods of postnatal ontogenesis, associated with the determining physiological processes of the body. The terminology of the described histological structures of the spleen was given in accordance with the International Histological Nomenclature. All digital data obtained in the course of morphological and experimental studies were statistically processed using the computer software professional statistical package «IBM SPSS Statistics 21» and the computer program «Microsoft Office Excel».

In a hedgehog, the spleen is a typical organ of hematopoiesis, from the surface it is cherry-colored and red-brown on the cut, with an elastic consistency. The splenic stroma is formed by a capsule and trabeculae extending from it. In the hedgehog spleen, white and red pulps are secreted. Lymphoid nodules are indistinctly delimited from the red pulp; their sections are almost always ellipsoidal. Numerous giant cells, megakaryocytes, are located between the splenic pulp cords. The size of megakaryocytes in the spleen of the white-breasted hedgehog varies from 45 to 80 microns. The size of megakaryocytes in the spleen of the white-breasted hedgehog varies from 45 to 80 microns.

It has been established for the first time that extramedullary hematopoiesis, which arises from the red pulp of the spleen, is characteristic (in the norm) for the East European hedgehog living in the territory of the Republic of Belarus.