Light and Electron Microscopical Characterization of Heterophilic Granulocytes in the Intestinal Wall and Islet Parenchyma of the Hagfish,Myxine glutinosa (Cyclostomata)

Heterophilic granulocytes were studied in the blood, intestinal wall, and islet parenchyma of the Atlantic hagfish (Myxine glutinosa) by light and electron microscopical methods. The granulocytes are pseudoeosinophils and show a PAS-positive cytoplasmic reaction. Ultrastructurally, the cells contain evenly distributed pleomorphic cytoplasmic granules with the granule membrane close to the osmiophilic core. Emigrated blood granulocytes are found extra-vascularly in the submucous connective tissue, and obviously they can pass the basal lamina and migrate into the epithelium of the intestine, bile duct, and islet parenchyma. Though the staining characteristics of hagfish granulocytes are different from those of endocrine cells in the intestinal mucosa and islet parenchyma, intraepithelial granulocytes in some locations may sometimes be difficult to distinguish ultrastructurally from insulin-containing B-cells, since heterophil granules have both a size and a shape close to those of secretion granules in B-cells. However, in contrast to B-cells the granulocytes show the following ultrastructural features: a lobated nucleus with peripherally arranged electron-dense chromatin; cytoplasmic processes and often rod-like granules with no clear space between the granule membrane and core; prominent cytoplasmic vacuoles and microtubules; and sparse mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum. Furthermore, immigrated granulocytes lack desmosomes and annulate lamellae. Some of the intraepithelial granulocytes in the mucosa show signs of disintegration and cell death. Degenerative cell processes are also described in the islet parenchyma.