Light and Electron Microscopical Studies on the Hyalocytes of Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo)

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the light and electron microscopical structure of the hyalocytes in turkey. This study was applied on a total number of 15 (10 males and 5 females) clinically healthy turkeys of Bronze black species, collected from a local farm in Assiut Governorate, Egypt. For sampling and fixation, 30 turkey's eyeballs were enucleated and subjected to study. The hyalocytes appeared as large cell with different shapes (rounded, oval or elliptical). They located within ambushes found along the outer surface of the retino-pecteneal membrane. In these cells, present numerous cytoplasmic vacuoles and large oval nucleus located near the internal part of the cell. There were many cytoplasmic processes that joined each other as a fine meshwork enclosing several vesicles or parts of foreign materials along the external portion of the cell. On the internal or deep surface of the cell present numerous filopodia, which extended to occupy the depressions found on the outer surface of the retino-pecteneal membrane. The presence of ingested foreign materials and the appearance of filopodia in a moving condition along the internal surface of the cell insure that hyalocytes are considered highly active phagocytic cells.