Histo‐morphology of the thyroid gland during the larval development of Pleurodema borellii (Anura, Leptodactylidae)

CRUZ, JULIO CÉSAR

ACTA ZOOLOGICA

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2020

0001-7272

The thyroid gland is essential in anurans, since thyroid hormones (TH) are the mainregulators of larval development. Its absence or inactivity interrupts developmentand precludes metamorphosis. Histological changes are important diagnostic cri-teria for evaluating thyroid gland activity. However, there is a large larval diver-sity where the development of the thyroid gland development has not been studied.Pleurodema borellii is an anuran from northwest of Argentina with typical omnivo-rous pond tadpoles that can be easily raised in captivity. This study explores thehisto-morphological changes of the thyroid gland architecture during larval develop-ment. Histological parameters indicate peak glandular activity in parallel with theintensity of the metamorphic transformations. These parameters regress towards theend of metamorphosis, indicating low TH release. P. borellii´s thyroid gland doesnot appear to have relevant activity in post-metamorphic juvenile stages. This studyis a first step towards understanding endocrine regulation during the developmentof Pleurodema borellii, and a reference to future studies in this species involvingthyroid-dependent processes.