ウシガエル幼生の変態期における腸管の組織化学的研究

特に酸性フォスファターゼ反応陽性細胞の動態について

抄録

The intestine of bullfrog tadpoles in Stage 4, 17, 20, 23 and 25 (according to Taylor and Kollros) were examined in their full length with special reference to the cells with acid phosphatase activity. The cells with acid phosphatase activity, excluding the absorptive epithelial cells, were classified into two types ; large and small ones. The large one was a macrophage, found mainly in the epithelium ; the small one was a mesenchymal cell which might have some phagocytic function, and was found mainly in the muscular layer. Both types of cells appeared in the connective tissue layer. The number of the large (macrophage) and small (mesenchymal) cells were counted in the epithelial layer, connective tissue layer and muscular layer respectively.
The number of the macrophages increased in the epithelial layer along the entire length of the intestine in Stage 17, especially in the anterior half of the intestine, and reached a maximum in Stage 20. In the anterior half of the intestine in Stage 20, the renewal of the epithelium had just occurred, whereas it had already been completed in the caudal region to the opening of the hepato-pancreatic duct, where the number of the macrophages was reduced. The region, where the number of the macrophages was reduced, was shifted from the anterior to the posterior successively through Stage 20 and 21. The renewal of the epithelium came to be nearly completed in Stage 23 and the macrophages were scarcely observed there.
In the connective tissue layer, the macrophages appeared in Stage 20, while there were more mesenchymal cells than in Stage 17. Both macrophages and mesenchymal cells had increased in number evenly along the length of the intestine in Stage 21, but decreased in Stage 23 and 25.
In the muscular layer, only mesenchymal cells were found between the inner circular and outer longitudinal muscular layers. The increase and decrease of the number of the cells in this layer was shown to have the same tendencies as the intraepithelial macrophages.
In conclusion, the changes in the number of these cells with acid phosphatase activity were correlated to the process of the histological changes of the intestine during metamorphosis.