Histophysiological and histochemical study of the intestine in golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) with emphasis on Goblet cells

The intestines are an important organ in the body of rodents due to the digestion and absorption of food and water, digestive digestion, microbial activity, production of immunoglobulin. The aim of this study was to investigate the histology of the golden hamster intestine and its goblet cells using histological and histochemical techniques.

Five adult and healthy male golden hamsters with an average weight of 120 g were prepared from experimental animal. After sampling from different parts of the intestine and preparing tissue sections, tissue samples were stained by Hematoxylin-Eosin, Periodic Acid Schiff and Alcian Blue methods and then studied by light microscope and the necessary micrographs for Histological studies were prepared .

In histopathological study, small and large intestine have 4 layers of mucosa, submucosa, muscular layer and serosa. The intestinal epithelium was consisted of simple columnar cells with a basal oval nucleus, that Mucus secreting goblet cells were seen among the columnar cells which both acidic and neutral mucus were secreted by these cells. It should be noted that the number of goblet cells increased from duodenum to colon and it was positive in PAS and Alcian Blue.

The results show that the anatomical and histological structure of the golden hamster intestine, despite minor differences, is very similar to that other rodents.