Histological and histochemical study of the esophagus in one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) during prenatal development

In this study esophagus during development has been investigated in prenatal and postnatal periods of the one-humped camel. The aim of this study, the investigation of the esophageal histological wall construction in camel during gestation period and after that in comparative with the esophageal histological development in other the domestic animals. For histogenesis study of esophagus in one-humped camel, 20 fetuses, around 86 days to 13 months, were chosen. Then, after the age calculating, the fetuses were stored in 10% buffer formalin and provided sections with 5 µ thickness of all the esophagus portions (cervical, thoracic and abdominal) and were stained by hematoxylin & eosin and periodic acid Schiff methods. According to the observed histological changes; developmental periods of the esophagus were divided into the three stages: the first stage (5-13 cm, 86- 110 days of pregnancy), the second stage (13-16 cm, 110-119 days of pregnancy) and the third stage (35-40 cm, 175-190 days of pregnancy). At 110 days of pregnancy, the epithelium was changed to the stratified squamous epithelium. At 119 days of pregnancy, the formation of primary stages glands tubes and neural ganglions in the esophagus were observed. At 175 days of pregnancy, in abdominal part of esophagus, thin and dispersed muscularis mucosa was observed in the connective tissue under the epithelium. The study observations revealed that the histological esophagus wall evolution, according to the gestation period in one-humped camel are less precocious than the domestic ruminants.