Histological Features of the Accessory Sex Gland of Indigenous Tom cat (Felis catus)

يلحملا طقلا ركذ يف ةقحلالا ةيسنجلا ددغلل ةيجيسنلا تافصلا


Introduction
In mammals the male reproductive system has supported by a group of accessory sex glands which comprised of the seminal vesicles, ampulla of ductus deference, prostate, bulbourethral and coagulating glands. Nonetheless, not every mammalian order has all of the glands. The prostate glands are present in all domestic animals involve Cats as compact and globular organ which surrounds the pelvic urethra. The bulbourethral glands are paired structures positioned at the caudal part of pelvic urethra between the urethra and bulbospongiosus muscles, in front of penile root (1, 2, and 3). In rabbit the bulbourethral glands have cubical shaped and extend along the dorsal urethra, surrounded by a fibrous capsule and bulboglandularis muscle and connected to the prostate gland by connective tissue (4). In human the bulbourethral gland is small size, tubular organ has ovoid-pea sized and located dorsolateral between both fasciae of the pelvic diaphragm (5). The indigenous tom cat male genital system has described previously by (6), but the study want involve the accessory glands. It is important to provide a data on the histological characteristics of the accessory sex glands which considered significance in breeding, in order to make a pathological diagnosis and provide clinical treatment of diseases. The aim of the study was aimed to describe histological and histochemical features of accessory sex glands and ductus deference glands in the indigenous cat.

Ethical approval
The design of the present study was approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Baghdad. Baghdad, Iraq.

Experimental animals
Six adult tom cats were obtained from the Department of Surgery and Obstetrics in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Baghdad after which death due to unsatisfactory accidents were used for this study. The study was carried out at department of Anatomy & Histology, College of Veterinary Medicine -University of Baghdad. The samples of the ampulla of ductus deferens, prostate and bulbourethral glands were removed immediately from the body and fixed in 10% buffered formalin saline. Samples were processed with upgrading concentration of ethanol (70, 80, 90 & 100%), cleared with xylen and embedded in paraffin bath at (58C) and sectioned at 5-6µm with rotary microtome. The tissue sections were stained with Hematoxylin & Eosin stain, Mason's trichrom stain and combine Alcian blue & PAS stain (7,8,9 and 10). The tissue sections were examined by light microscopy and microphotography has done by using Future Win Joe microscopic camera, the images have analyzed and scored by using Fiji image analyzer system (11).
Statistical analysis Statistical analysis has been done by using The SPSS statistic version (24) to analyze the data. The results were displayed in Means and Standard Error.

Results and Discussion
The results of the wall of ampulla composed of three tunicae; (i) mucosa, (ii) muscularis, and (iii) adventitia. This result was coincided with (12, 13 and 14). The tunica mucosa was lined by non-ciliated simple cuboidal epithelium and this epithelium has composed of mucous secreting cells, non-secreting cells and in some regions was showed cellular bulging ( fig.1&2), the epithelium height in tomcat was (18.3±1.1µm). The mucous secreting cells were showed negative reaction for PAS stain, while the non-secreting cells showed intense reaction for PAS stain ( fig.3).
The current result was in contrast with (12, 15 and 16) who recorded that the tunica mucosa was lined by pseudo stratified columnar epithelium. Meanwhile (14) in bull and jackass recorded tall columnar pseudo stratified epithelium in bull, and high simple cuboidal epithelium in jackass. The tunica muscularis was thick layer, measured about (198.5±6.07µm) and composed of circular oriented smooth muscle fibers ( fig.3). The tunica adventitia composed of dense irregular collagenous connective tissue ( fig.4), the thickness of tunica adventitia was (109.9±2.1µm). This results were disagree with (12) in buck, (15) in sheep and goat, and (16) in camel who mentioned for two layers in tunica muscularis (Inner circular and outer longitudinal smooth muscles), the tunica adventitia was loose connective tissue. On the other hand (15) has observed autonomic ganglion in adventitia of goat. Meanwhile (14) in bull and jackass noticed three layers in tunica muscularis (Inner longitudinal, middle and outer layers), also the epithelium height of ampulla in tomcat was lower than that recorded in the bull (64±10μm) and in jackass (21± 4μm).
In tomcat the prostate was a large gland and composed of tubuloalveolar secretary units that surrounded the pelvic urethra ( fig.5). The gland has consisted of the very thick periurethral tunica mucosa and lined with transitional epithelium. The lamina propria was composed of slightly dense irregular collagen fibers, tubuloalveolar glands and many of wide veins ( fig.6, 7 & 8).The prostate muscularis was composed of thick layer of skeletal muscle cells ( fig. 9 &10). The secretory units of the prostate was of vary small size and variable shape. The glandular epithelium was pseudo stratified columnar and few of low cuboidal in some of the larger saccular cavities ( fig.10), the secretory units showed intense reaction for PAS stain ( fig.11). This result was not coincided with (17) in boar who recorded that the prostate was lobulated tubule-alveolar type and has only the disseminated part because its glandular tissue distributed through the sub mucosal layer of pelvic urethra, the capsular septa were composed of collagen, reticular fibers and smooth muscles, the serous secretary end pieces and ducts were lined with cuboidal epithelium, while (18) mentioned that the prostate of rabbit was constituted by stroma and glandular acini. On the other hand, (19) in bull reported lobulated with marked the disseminate part. Also in bull the prostate was fibro-muscular gland and composed of tubule-lobulated structure, their alveoli were lined with simple cuboidal epithelium which reacted positively with PAS and alcian blue stains, in tomcat the main excretory ducts of prostate were opening in the pelvic urethra that lined with transional epithelium as well as mentioned by (20).
The current results showed that the bulbourethral gland was small glands on the urethra surrounded by a thick fibro-muscular capsule whose septa subdivided the gland into lobules. Each lobule composed of tubuloalveolar secretory units. The secretory units were lined by pseudo stratified to simple columnar epithelium supported by a thin layer of myoepithelial cells surrounds each alveolus. The epithelium height was (28.9±2.3µm). The cytoplasm of epithelial secretory units contained acidic secretory granules with Alcian blue (2.5pH) stains ( fig.11, 12 & 13). This result in contrast with results of (15, 21 and 22) who mentioned that the bulbourethral glands in Gaddi goat, sheep and bull were compound tubule-alveolar and mixed gland. However, (23) in camel, mentioned that the bulbourethral glands were compound tubuloalveolar glands has three types of secretory units which designated (A, B and C). Type A is lined with high columnar cells and the cytoplasm contains lots of secretory granules, which are PAS-positive, Alcian Blue-positive. Type B is lined with pyramidal or cuboidal cells and the cytoplasm shows PAS-positive, Alcian Bluepositive. In bull recorded that the bulbourethral gland was compound tubulealveolar glands composed of mix mucous and serous secretory units, the mucous were lined with tall columnar epithelium, and the serous were lined with cuboidal epithelium. But (24) in bull, declared that the bulbourethral gland appeared intense PAS positive reaction in the basement membrane lining epithelium. On the other hand, (17) in boar, mentioned that the bulbourethral gland were compound tubulo-alveolar glands. The gland was predominantly mucous glands were lined with columnar epithelium.

Conclusion
From the current results concluded that tom cat's accessory glands has devoid of seminal vesicles and has well developed and functional prostate and bulbourethral glands.       400X.