A Lectin-histochemical study on the seminiferous epithelium of the Northern Smooth-Tailed Tree Shrew (Dendrogale murina) and the Java Tree Shrew (Tupaiajavanica)

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A Lectin-Histochemical Study on the Seminiferous Epithelium of

the Northern Smooth-Tailed Tree Shrew

(Dendrogale murina)

and

the Java Tree Shrew

(Tupaiajavanica)

By

Masamichi KUROHMARU ", Takuo MIZUKAMI ", Yoshiakira KANAI",

Eiichi HONDO ", Hideki ENDO", Junpei KIMURA

4),

Worawut

RERKAMNUA YCHOKE

6

),

Srihadi AGUNGPRIYONO

1),

Takao NISHIDA ",

Junzo YAMADA') and Yoshihiro HAYASHI "

II _{Department o f Veterinary Anatomy. The Unive rsi ty o f Tokyo. J apan.}

ll Departmcnt o f Ve terina ry An atomy. Obihiro University. Japan .

31 Department of Zoology. National Science Museum. J apan .

• , Depanment of Vet erinary An atomy and SI Department of Anato my and Physiology. Nihon Universi ty, Japan. to, Department of Veterinary Anatomy. Kaselsart Unive rsity, Thailand.

7'Department of Ve terinary Ana tomy. Bogor Agricultural Universi ty. Indonesia

Received fo r Publ ication. February 23. 2000

-Key Words: Lectin. Testis. Seminiferous epithelium. Delldrogofe murillO, Tilpa ia jOVQllico

Summary: Lectin-binding pa tterns in the testes o r the northe rn smooth-tailed tree shrew, Dendrogufe murina and Ja u tree sh re"", Tupaia ja l'anica were studied by light microscopy a nd compared the data "'ith those or the common tree shre"" , f our let1ins ( PNA, SBA, BPA and GS-II) we re used in this study. Peanut (Arachis h)'pogaea) agglutinin (PNA), ｳｯｾ ﾷ ｢ｵｲＮ＠ (Glycine mar) agglutinin (S BA ) and Bauhin;a purpurea agglutinin (BPA ) sho" 'ed II _{strong ructio n in}

the acrl)somal regio n rrom Golgi to acrosome-phase spermatids in three species or tree shrews. These le ctins also showed a granula r positive reaction in the cytoplasm rrom acrosome to maturation-phase spermatids in three species, except that BPA revealed no granular reactio n (though it was positive) in the lI:permatid cytoplasm or the non hem smooth·tailed tree shrew and that PNA revealed no rudon in the spennatid cytoplasm or the common tree shrew, While, Griffonia simplici/o fia -II agglutinin (GS-II) showed a positive re action in the acrosomal region or Golgi-phase spermatids in three species or tree shrews. Although GS-II was positive in the spermRtocyte cytoplasm or three species, it showed granular in the northern smooth-tailed tree shrew and common tree shre w but not gunular in the Java tree shre w. Thus. the lectin-binding patterns in testes we re similar among three species be longing to the Order Scandentia. However, slight ditrerences ",'ere also detected e ve n among these phylogenetically-dose species .

A number of lectins have been used as

histo-chemica1 reagents to detect the distributi o n of

glycoconjugates in various ti ssues.

Lectin-histo-chemis try has bee n ca rried o ut in the testes of many

ma mm alia n species (Ya mamoto, 1982; Arya a nd

VanhaPerttula. 1984, 1985, 1986; Lee a nd Dam

-janov, 1984, 1985: Malmi

el

al.,

1987, 1990: Malmi

and Sode rstrom. 1987: Wollin a

el

al., 1989;

Kurohmaru

et

al.,

199 1, 1995, 1996; Kurohmaru

and Ha yashi. 1998; Arenas

el

al.,

1998), indicat ing

th at lectin -binding patterns revea l the differences

amo ng each spec ies. In our previous stud y (K uro

h-maru

er aI.,

1996) , we exami ned the semin iferous

e pith elium of the co mmon tree shrew

( Tupaia glis)

by lectin-histochemistry and compared the dat a

with those of insect ivores' (phylogenetically close

to tree shrews) , especially with the musk shrew

(K urohm aru

el

al.,

1995). As a result , the lect in

-bindings of th e common tree shrew were somewhat

different from those of the musk shrew. Howeve r,

it is still uncertain whe ther th ese lect in- binding

patterns are commo n amo ng tree shrews (Order

Scandentia) . In o rder to so lve thi s problem, the

prese nt

ｾ ｴｵ､ ｹ＠

was proposed to examine the

semi-niferous epithelium of ot he r species be longing to

the O rde r Sca nd en ti a , such as th e no rth ern smoot

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