Histomorphological developmental study of the adrenal gland of the local rabbit at one and fifteen days age

Abstract

The adrenal glands are complex endocrine glands regulating multiple physiological processes in the animal body. This study was carried out on the adrenal glands during two postnatal periods of a local rabbit. Twelve animals regardless of the sex divided equally two age periods (1, 15 days age). The adrenal glands were collected and fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin for cortical tissue and Orth’s solution fora medullary tissue. The sections of 6 μm thicknesses were stained by Haemotoxylin and Eosin stain (H&E), periodic acid Schiff stain (PAS) and Van Gieson stains. These specimens were conducted for histomorphologic investigation applied in both age periods. Anatomically the glands of local rabbits were paired white to creamy in color, oval to the crescent in shape. It was embedded in fat, lying cranial to the cranial pole of kidney within the retroperitoneal cavity similar to those of other mammals. The left adrenal gland was far off from the left kidney as a compared with the right gland. Histologically the adrenal capsule observed as one layer in the two age periods. The zona glomerulosa appeared as an arch of cells at subcapsular region, while the zona fasiculata and reticular zone were undifferentiated at day one old and