Morphological and Morphometric study of blood leucocytes from C. villosus, Mammalia, Dasypodidae

POLINI NN; R. CAMINA; CASANAVE E.B.

Comparative Haematology International

Springer

Lugar: London; Año: 1999 vol. 9 p. 162 - 167

0938-7714

The aim of this work was to study some morphological and morphometric parameters of leucocytes from blood smears of adult armadillos Chaetophractus villosus (Mammalia, Dasypodidae). We also analysed the significance of the different sources of variation in these measurements. Blood samples were obtained through heart puncture, using plastic syringes without anticoagulant, in anaesthetised, wild, healthy animals (n = 25). Two blood smears of each animal were stained with May Grunwald-Giemsa. Maximum and minimum diameters were measured for each type of leucocyte (n = 10 for the most abundant ones: neutrophils and lymphocytes, and n = 5 for others: eosinophils, basophils and monocytes). A hierarchical decomposition of the different sources of variation (animals, samples and cells) was carried out using pure model II nest ANOVA. This analysis was applied to both measured parameters. The variation components related to cells were always higher than those related to animals. Estimation of the selected parameters was only marginally changed between samples of the animal. The nuclei of both neutrophils and eosinophils were morphologically similar, generally with four or more lobes. The cytoplasm and neutrophils was only lightly stained. Lymphocytes are the smallest cell type, whereas basophils and lymphocytes are the roundest ones. Eosinophils and basophils are the cell types most variable in size. We suggest that for further studies the effort of sampling be aimed at measuring a larger number of cells from a moderate number of animals. Our results should represent the normal morphological and morphometrical characteristics of leucocytes of wild, healthy animals of this species.