Topographical and histological study of the salt gland of the moorhen (Gallinula c. choropus)‎

Abstract EN

The moorhen (Gallinula c.chloropus), Because of their diet and environment, need to be able to rid their bodies of excess salt or face dehydration, For this region, Moorhen possess a pair of glands located just above their eyes in the low groove of the eye orbit attached to the frontal bone of the skull.

Salt gland was also called supraorbital or nasal gland and their function to secrete hyperosmotic NACL or KCL solution an important osmoregulatory organ.

Salt glands in the Moorhen have a micro-structure similar to kidney and use a system of counter current blood flow to remove and concentrate salt ions from the blood stream, the paired, crescent–shaped glands each contain several longitudinal lobes, each lobe contains central duct from which radiate thousands of tubules enmeshed in blood capillaries.

These tiny capillaries carry blood along the tubules of the gland, which have walls just one cell thick, the Moorhen salt gland was vascularized by several arterial branches such as the supraorbital Facial and internal ophthalmic arteries the glands are surrounded by a capsule of connective tissue in addition some smooth muscle cells, the secretory units consists of secretory tubules and ducts that lined by one layer of simple cuboidal epithelium that rests at basement membrane, while the ducts have many mayo epithelial cells in their walls.