ABSTRACT

Aim:

As a result of its special morphology, the spleen plays an important role in cleaning of pathogens as well as old damaged erythrocytes from blood. Macrophage subgroups located in different areas of the spleen were identified through the studies performed on spleen macrophages. With this study we aimed to evaluate subgroups in rats spleen’s phagocytic and lysosomal enzyme activity for erythrocytes and intravenously administered India ink and macrophage subgroups structural properties assessed at light microscopy level.

Material and Method:

In this study, eighteen Wistar Albino adult male rats were used. Rats were divided into three equal groups. No application was made to the first group. India ink with a weight of 1 ml / 100 g were given to the second and third group animals from the tail vein. Thirty minutes after the injections, the animals of Group 2 were sacrificed. The animals of Group 3 were sacrificed twenty-four hours after the application simultaneously with Group 1 and their spleens were removed. Routine fixation and processing procedures applied for light and electron microscopy, and various staining techniques were performed to the paraffin and araldite sections. Enzyme histochemistry technique was used to determine lysosomal enzyme activities.

Results:

As a result, macrophages located in the marginal zone showed weak phagocytic activity to the carbon particles, their lysosomal enzyme activities were weak, and the macrophages located in red pulp were morphologically different.

Conclusion:

It was concluded that the main phagocytic cells of rat spleen are the red pulp macrophages.