McWilliam L J, Curry A, Rowland P L, Watson J S
Department of Histopathology, Withington Hospital, West Didsbury, Manchester.
J Clin Pathol. 1991 May;44(5):428. doi: 10.1136/jcp.44.5.428.
A bather on holiday in Kenya injured a finger on a spiny marine creature living on the sea bed. A skin biopsy specimen from the injured finger contained several black spines about 0.5 mm in diameter and up to 1.5 cm in length. Spines removed from the specimen were embedded in plastic resin to facilitate transverse sectioning. Light microscopical examination using crossed polarisers showed an ornate symmetrical structure brightly illuminated against a dark background. These features are characteristic of sea urchin (Echinoderm) spines which are composed of ornately formed calcite crystals covered by an epithelium. The spines of sea mice, on the other hand, are chitinous in nature; they are also much finer and lack the ornate symmetry of sea urchin spines.
一名在肯尼亚度假的沐浴者手指被生活在海床上的带刺海洋生物刺伤。从受伤手指取下的皮肤活检标本中含有几根黑色刺，直径约0.5毫米，长度达1.5厘米。从标本中取出的刺被嵌入塑料树脂中以便进行横切。使用交叉偏振器的光学显微镜检查显示，在深色背景衬托下，一种华丽的对称结构被清晰照亮。这些特征是海胆（棘皮动物）刺的特点，海胆刺由覆盖着上皮的形态华丽的方解石晶体组成。另一方面，海鼠的刺本质上是几丁质的；它们也细得多，并且缺乏海胆刺那种华丽的对称性。
