Effect of Accute Starvation on Histomorphology of Hepatopancreas in White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

Hepatopancreas as a vital organ whose function changes during life, effects clearly on histological structure. Since there is no study about this matter this study has been done. In this study fifty healthy mature vannamei with the average length of 12±1 cm and weight of 18 ± 0.5 gr were caught from breeding farms. After adaptation, shrimps were kept in two aquavarium with same condition while one group was kept hungry for 5 days and another group (control group) was fed during the same time. Then 20 hepatopancreas from each group were taken and held in Davidson solution fixative. The routine procedures of preparation of tissues were followed and the cutted paraffin blocks were stained, and studied under light microscope. Microscopic findings, revealed kinds of M, E, B and R cells. The number of cells, size of lobules and the weight of hepatopancreas in non-hungry and hungry samples were measured and examined with statistical analysis. Results showed reduce in number and area of hepatopancreas tubules especially in resorptive cells than to other cells. According to the findings, weight and area of hepatopancreas, size of cells and tubules in two groups was significance with statistical analysis.