The marsupials, also known as opossums, mucuras and saruês, belong to the family Didelphidae (Cubas et al, 2006) and play in the ecological function being seed dispersers, predators of venomous animals, such as scorpions, and population controllers of rodents (Soeiro, 2022). This species is the object of scientific research in numerous related areas, including the histology of their organs. Thus, this panel is to show the academic community and the for lovers of marsupials to microscopic features of the kidney of Didelphis marsupialis.
The urinary system has an important role in the homeostasis process by performing blood filtration, excreting harmful residues during the formation and elimination of urine (Konig and Liebich 2021; Kardong, 2006). This system is formed by a pair of kidneys, a pair of ureters, a urinary vesicle and a urethra (Fontinele, 2022). The kidneys of D. marsupialis are unilobar, presented retroperitoneal location and have a "grain of beans" form, the right kidney is found more cranial that left, covered by a fibrous capsule (Fontinele, 2022), similar to most of the domestic animals (Dyce et al., 2019).
Ferreira (2022) described the renal parenchyma of D. marsupialis as covered by an outer layer of connective tissue and is divided into cortical zone and in the medullary zone where it is possible to find renal corpuscle, tubule proximal contorted, henle handles, distal contorted tubule and collecting tubule. The renal corpuscle is formed by a tuft of capillaries forming the glomerulus, as well as simple parietal pavement leaflet and the visceral leaflet that makes up the Bowman capsule, which is intimately connected to the first tubular segment, the proximal contorted tubule, which has a cubic simple epithelium. Henle handles are divided into two branches, thin and thick. The tubule distal contort also has simple cubic epithelium and flows into the collecting tubules. This microscopic organization is similar to that described for
Domestic mammals (Eurell and Frappier, 2012 ; Samuelson, 2011).
Author: Jordana Paiva – Deputy director of Regional Representatives
Revision: Iago Junqueira - GEAS Brazil partner from The Wild Place
Bibliographic references:
CUBAS, Z.; SILVA, J.; CATÃO-DIAS, J. Tratado de Animais Selvagens–2ª edição. São Paulo, editora Roca, 2006.
SOEIRO, Luiza Thereza Abtibol. Morfologia e ultraestrutura do baço do gambá Didelphis marsupialis (Linnaeus, 1758). 2022.
EURELL, Jo Ann; FRAPPIER, Brian L. Histologia veterinária de Dellmann. Tradução: Fernando Gomes do Nascimento, 2012.
Comments