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Urate cells and tissues in the south american apple snail Pomacea canaliculata

2008; Oxford University Press; Volume: 74; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/mollus/eyn017

1464-3766

Maximiliano Giraud‐Billoud, Eduardo Koch, Israel A. Vega, Carlos Gamarra‐Luques, Alfredo Castro‐Vazquez,

Mercury impact and mitigation studies

Intracellular urate concretions are known to occur in some insects, crustaceans and gastropods. Crystalloid-containing urate cells and tissues are widespread in many organs of the apple-snail Pomacea canaliculata. The occurrence of three different urate tissues (perivascular, compact and nodular) correlated well with uric acid concentrations found in the organs containing them. The highest uric acid concentrations were found in the coiled gut (showing both perivascular and compact tissues), the style sac (compact tissue), the testis, the midgut gland and the lung (perivascular tissue) and the aortic ampulla (nodular tissue). Lower concentrations were found in organs with perivascular tissue associated only with their main supplying vessels (anterior kidney and ctenidium), while organs devoid of urate tissues had minimal concentrations (mantle skirt, posterior kidney, albumen gland and heart). Transmission electron microscopy of urate cells revealed a process of sequential differentiation and death, accompanied by the formation and resorption of urate crystalloids. This process occurred asynchronously in cells within the same tissue, suggesting an active turnover of uric acid in the organs containing them.