Light and Electron Microscopic Structure of Corpuscles of Stannius of the Fresh Water Fish, Notopterus notopterus

The corpus cles of N otopterus . notopterus s pherical in s hape, the cells of the gland are us ually arranged in s trands , s eparated by s epta of connective tiss ue continuous with outer fibrous caps ule . The cyto architecture of the CS in Notopterus notopterus s hows that four types of arrange ment of connective s epta and cells .T wo principle types of s ecretory cells are obs erved. Type-l (PAS+ve) and Type-2 (PAS -ve). Type-1 cells are round with clear ves icular nucleus and s tainable material in the cytoplas m Type -II ce lls are s lender, irregular ce ll bodies that may contain cytoplas mic proces s es e xtending between the type-I cells , A third type-III cells was als o noticed. Pres ence of lipids was detected by Sudan Black-B s taining method. The presence of proteins was obs erved by Mercury -bromophenol-blue s taining method. The ultras tructural obs ervation of corpus cles of Stannius in the fis h, Notopterus notopterus s hows bas ically three types of cells . The identification of three different cells is bas ed on the nuclear s tructure, morphology of s ecretary granules and other cytoplas mic co mponents .