Morphology of the stomach of the tropical house gecko Hemidactylus mabouia (Squamata: Gekkonidae).

Abstract

Hemidactylus mabouia is a common species in Brazil, which facilitates its use in research in several areas and allows display it as a benchmark for studies with reptiles. To study the morphology of the stomach of H. mabouia, we carried out anatomical, histological and histochemical analysis. The stomach of H. mabouia is ‘J’ shaped and can be divided into oral fundic (OF), aboral fundic (AF) and pyloric regions. The surface epithelium is composed of mucosecretory cells (MC) containing neutral mucins. In the lamina propria of the OF region, are large ramified tubulo-acinar glands, which become smaller, less ramified and more tubular towards the AF region, and are simple tubular and short in the pyloric region. The fundic glands contain differentiated neck and pit. The neck is composed ofMC containing neutral mucins and the pit is made of oxyntopeptic cells (OC). The OC of the OF region contained many zymogen granules, while those of the AF region contained few zymogen granules and many mitochondria, which suggests the existence of a gradient of pepsinogen and hydrochloric acid secretion. Pyloric glands consisted of MC containing neutral mucins and both argyrophil and argentaffin endocrine cells.