Small specimens of the Asiatic bivalve Corbicula c.f. fluminea (Müller) secrete long mucous threads through their exhalent siphons that act as draglines to buoy the animal into a water column. These mucous strands, secreted in response to water current stimuli, are produced by dense accumulations of ctenidial mucocytes and may help in the downstream or interstream dispersal of this rapidly spre...

The origin and histology of the cardiac mucosa remains controversial. The classical concept that the cardiac mucosa is of gastric origin has been challenged by those who advocate that the cardiac mucosa results from a metaplastic esophageal process. Some regard cardiac mucosa as consisting solely of pure mucous glands, whereas others accept the presence of isolated parietal cells within the muc...

Indigenous bacteria in the alimentary tract are exposed to various bactericidal peptides and digestive enzymes, but the viability status and morphological changes of indigenous bacteria are unclear. Therefore, the present study aimed to ultrastructurally clarify the degeneration and viability status of indigenous bacteria in the rat intestine. The majority of indigenous bacteria in the ileal mu...

Colonization by indigenous microorganisms of the mucosal epithelia of the large bowels of suckling mice was followed by microbial culture techniques and by light, fluorescence, and electron microscopy. Certain microbes colonize in distinctive patterns the cecal and colonic epithelia in these mice. Coliforms and enterococci colonize the large bowel 7 to 9 days after birth and reach high populati...

Mucus performs numerous protective functions in vertebrates, and in fishes may defend them against harmful organisms, although often the evidence is contradictory. The function of the mucous cocoons that many parrotfishes and wrasses sleep in, while long used as a classical example of antipredator behaviour, remains unresolved. Ectoparasitic gnathiid isopods (Gnathiidae), which feed on the bloo...

Sleep is considered to be an important predictor of the immunity, since the absence of sleep can affect the development of the immune response, and consequently increase the susceptibility to contract an infection. The aim of the present study was to investigate if sleep deprivation and stress induce dysregulation of the duodenal mucous membrane during the acute infection with Trichinella spira...

A key issue in otitis media is mucous cell metaplasia which is responsible for mucous hypersecretion and persistence of the disease. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of mucous cell metaplasia in otitis media. Numerous studies of intestinal epithelial homeostasis have shown that Atonal homolog 1 (Atoh1), a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, is essential fo...

In antral mucous cells, acetylcholine (ACh, 1 μM) activates Ca(2+)-regulated exocytosis, consisting of an initial peak that declines rapidly (initial transient phase) followed by a second slower decline (late phase) lasting during ACh stimulation. The addition of 8-bromo-cGMP (8-BrcGMP) enhanced the initial phase, which was inhibited by the protein kinase G (PKG) inhibitor guanosine 3',5'-cycli...

The present experiment aimed to study the influence of six sources of non-digestible carbohydrates (NDC) on the mucous layer in the colon of rats. The NDC sources used were as follows: cellulose (C); pectin (P); inulin; resistant starch (RS); barley hulls. The diets contained 108-140 g NDC/kg DM. A fibre-free (FF) diet served as a control. The diets were fed to forty-eight rats for 34-41 d. The...

A perlite sample representative of an operating mine in Milos was investigated with respect to the type and spatial distribution of water. A set of different methods was used which finally provided a consistent view on the water at least in this perlite. Infrared spectroscopy showed the presence of different water species (molecular water and hydroxyl groups / strongly bound water). The presenc...