| Fish skin is a multipurpose tissue with important functions of protection, perception or hormone metabolism in fish body. As a by-product of fish processing, it can be used as a material for extracting collagen, making leather and related pathological research. However, there are only some reports on the tissue structure of fish skin. This study aims to analyze the structural characteristics of Thamnaconus septentrionalis fish skin so as to provide reference for the utilization of its resources. Six T.septentrionalis samples (Fig.1) were selected and their skins were observed using frozen section, skeletal staining, H&E staining, PAS staining, Masson staining, VG staining and scanning electron microscopy respectively. The images obtained by slice scanning were analyzed by SlideViewer (3DHISTECH), ImageJ and Photoshop. The SEM images were analyzed by ImageJ and Photoshop.SPSS25.0 was used to analyze the data of epidermal layer thickness, squamous layer thickness, conical bone bulge thickness, basal layer thickness and dermis thickness. The results showed that the histological structure of the skin consisted of four parts: epidermis, scale layer, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. The thickness of epidermal layer is (26.81±7.48)μm, which mainly composed of epithelial cells and basal cells, and contained a large number of mucus cells; the scale layer consists of the spine of conical bone and a substrate, the thickness of which is (22.49±5.19) μm, and there are 2-4 rows of spine of conical bone with different diameters, different bending degrees at the top and a height of (257.13±10.41) μm unevenly distributed on the base plate; the average thickness of dermis is (176.97±21.11) μm, and the dermis thickness of head is lesser than the middle part of body, but greater than the tail, which was mainly composed of collagen fiber; the subcutaneous tissue layer is mainly composed of collagen fibers and non-fibrous stroma (Fig.2-7).In this paper, the histological pattern of the skin of T.septentrionalis was mapped according to its characteristics(Fig.8), providing valuable information for fish skin resource usage. |
