著者

浅川 牧夫

出版者

公益社団法人 日本水産学会

雑誌

日本水産学会誌 (ISSN:00215392)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.36, no.1, pp.83-87, 1970-01-25 (Released:2008-02-29)

参考文献数

25

被引用文献数

20 21

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Biochemical studies on the mucus covering fish body are of high interest not only from the physiological aspect but also from comparative biochemistry as regards mucins of other animals. In respect to mucus on fish epidermis, only a few investigations, mainly on the sugars and amino acids, have been done by TURUMI and SAITO1), WESSLER and WERNER2), and ENOMOTO etal3-5). No detailed works, therefore, have been done on the chemical nature and property. In the present paper, to elucidate the chemical nature and property of fish mucus, the histochemical identification and characterization were first performed on the mucus in the epidermis of eel, Anguilla japonica. The tissue was fixed in Carnoy's fluid for about 1 hour, and then cut at a thickness of 10μ. The sections were stained by the conventional periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) reaction for polysaccharides. For sialic acid-containing glycoproteins, alcian blue (AB)-PAS staining7) with or without sialidase digestion was carried out. For sulfated mucopolysaccharides, aldehyde fuchsin (AF)-AB9), AB-safranin 0 (Saf.)10), and neutral red (NR) staining11) were done. The results of the histochemical stainings are as follows: 1) The mucin covering eel body were composed mainly of sialic acid-containing glycoprotein and sulfated mucopolysaccharide. 2) The former is secreted to the outside from goblet cells, the latter from columnar mucous cells, respectively. 3) The predominant component of the mucus seems to be sialic acid-containing glycoprotein.