Developmental Study of the Ventral Scent Gland of the Mongolian Gerbil

Abstract

Male and female in bred Mongolian gerbils aged 4, 5, 10, and 20 weeks were examined for the presence of a ventral scent gland macroscopically and hisologically. It was found in about half of the gerbils aged 4 weeks and in all of the gerbils aged over 5 weeks. In adult male gerbils it weighed three times as much as in females. The ventral scent gland exhibited a sebaceous-like structure which consists of giant glandular cells with small vacuoles in the cytoplasm and the glandular cells displayed eosinophilic bodies contained within a duct, which are extruded through the lumen as holocrine-type secretion.