Histological and histochemical investigations on Japanese lizard esophagus.

The authors previously investigated the bottle-shaped glands distributed in the lamina propria mucosae of the Japanese lizard and gecko. We made two sets of sections of the Japanese lizard at that time. The numerical values of the physical dimensions of the two individuals were as given table 1, showing that No. 2 was slightly smaller. Moreover we found very unusual tissue in the lower portion of the esophagus of No. 2. Therefore we excluded this individual from the preceding investigations. However, we made various observations, and the results of these investigations are as follows. 1. The lumen of the upper portion of the esophagus has no fold. However, the middle and lower portions formed very complicated folds. Therefore, the lumen was remarkably narrow. 2. The epithelium of the esophageal mucous membrane consisted of simple columnar cells and throughout each part, reacted strongly to PAS and moderately to AB (pH 2.5 and 0.5). It presented a dark blue (R18-B13 of Blue-Purple-Red) color in response to PAS-AB (pH 2.5) and contained no pepsinogen granules. The esophageal upper portion of small individuals only exhibited the PAS reaction in this investigation. 3. A number of bottle-shaped glands were distributed in the lamina propria mucosae of the lower portion of the esophagus of each material. The glandular cells in the basal portion were most differentiated and contained a great number of pepsinogen granules. 4. The above-mentioned glands were extremely simple and glands of this type could not be found in textbooks and theses. Accordingly, we previously described them with the tentative name of shimple branched tubular glands, but subsequently found this to be erroneous. We assume that these glands are esophageal gastric glands. 5. Compound tubular glands are formed in the lamina propria mucosae of the human esophagus, but do not exist in the Japanese macaque, crab-eating monkey, horse, cow, swine, dog, cat, rabbit, mouse and rat. Dellmann-Brown also described the absence of such glands in the esophagus of the horse, swine, cow, goat, sheep, dog and cat. 6. We subsequently found compound tubular glands distributed in the lamina propria mucosae of the fowl, goose and wild duck esophagus. They similarly secreted pepsinogen granules. 7. We assume that these glands of the Japanese lizard and gecko have a phylogenic relation with the glands in the bird. The pepsinogen-granule-secreting cells in the snake do not extend into the lamina propria mucosae.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)