AGE RELATED HISTOLOGICAL AND HISTOCHEMICAL CHANGES OF ALBINO RAT INTESTINAL MUCOSA AND GENDER VARIABILITY

Abstract

The present research was done to study histological and histochemical features of intestinal mucosa in male and female albino rats at different ages including young, adult and elderly. This is in a trial to detect age related changes and gender variability. The animals were divided according to their ages into three groups (20 each). The first group represented the young adult ( one and two month old). The second group represented the adult (three and four month old). The third group represented the elderly (one and two year old). The animals were anasthetized by ether and specimens from small and large intestine were dissected out and prepared for histological and histochemical examination. The histological stains and histochemical methods used in this study include, Haematoxylin and Eosin, silver reducing technique, combined Alcian-blue-Periodic acid Schiff, calcuim phosphate method for alkaline phosphataze enzyme detection,

Histological study of intestinal mucosa of the aging rats revealed some histological features which are different from those detected in the • young and adult age groups in male and female.

In the small intestine, the simple columnar cells show a well defined brush border seen in H, E stained sections. The detection of the alkaline phosphatase enzyme on the villous brush border shows increased positive reaction with age until the elderly group where the reaction declines in male and female, although there's intense positive reaction in one year old female .