histological differentiation of triceps brachii muscle in ... · in this study forelimbs obtained...
TRANSCRIPT
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Sokoto Journal of Medical Laboratory Science 2016; 1(1): 208 – 214
Orginal Article
SJMLS-1-2016-30
Histological differentiation of Triceps brachii muscle in cattle and one-
humped camel: A comparative study
S.A. Hena*1, M.L. Sonfada1, S.A. Shehu1, M. Jibir2 and A. Bello1
Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto,
Nigeria 1, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto,
Nigeria 2.
Corresponding author: [email protected]; +234-806-052-4623
Abstract
In this study forelimbs obtained from 25 male camels (Camelus dromedarius) and 25 male cattle (Zebu type) slaughtered at Sokoto Municipal Modern abattoir were studied. Each animal was within the age brackets of 6 months to 7 years. The triceps brachii muscle was dissected out and used for histological studies. Generally, the triceps brachii muscles from both the camel and cattle showed typical features of skeletal muscle, but comparatively, it was demonstrated that the camel’s muscles have well outlined muscle fascicle with prominent endomysium surrounding the muscle fibres and prominent muscle fibres than what was obtained in the cattle. The muscle fibres (grains) observed from the triceps brachii of camel was finer and clearer than those observed for the cattle. This could probably be one of the attributes making the camel muscle (meat) to look so appealing grossly and hence a good potential to be utilized in meat industry. Further work is hereby being recommended to be performed in the same area using electron microscopy so as to be able to establish the ultrastructural details of this muscle in these animal species.
Key Words: Histological, Differentiation, Triceps Brachii, Cattle; One-humped Camel.
Introduction
The camel (Camelus dromedarius) is an important
multipurpose livestock species uniquely adapted to
harsh arid and semi-arid areas that can be used for
meat, milk, wool, and hide production (Al-Juboori
and Baker, 2012). Camels are greatly utilized as a
source of meat, and the demand for camel meat
appears to increase due to reasons related to human
health. They produce meat with relatively less fat
than other animals (Dawood and Alkanhal, 1995;
Kurtu, 2004). Meat from young camels has been
reported to be comparable in taste and texture to beef
(Elgasim and Alkanhal, 1992; Kadim et al., 2008).
Cattle are another important animal which is used as
the major source of milk, meat, hides as well as
draught power. Cattle can also be considered as
multi-purpose livestock (Agada et al., 2010). In
addition, they have played a major role in human
culture by participating in recreation and religious
ceremonies. Beef is an important animal husbandry
food product, contributing roughly 30% of meat
consumed in industrialized countries (Pelletier et al.,
2010). Majority of meat from these animals comes
from the skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscle tissue is
named due to its attachment to bones. It consists of
bundles of multinucleated fibres. Each fibre contains
longitudinally disposed myofibrils in a matrix of
sarcoplasm which is limited by a thin membrane, the
sarcolemma. The nuclei are peripherally placed. The
fibres appear to be cross-striated owing to alteration
of thick and thin myofilaments of the myofibrils.
Fibres usually do not extend the entire length of the
muscle. They terminate by attaching to the investing
connective tissue, although some of them may be
arranged more or less end to end (Sisson and
Grossman, 1975). Around each fibre external
to the sarcolemma, is a film of connective tissue, the
endomysium which is composed of fine reticular
fibers (Dyce et al., 2010). Each bundle of fibres
called fasciculus is surrounded by a greater quantity
of connective tissue-the perimysium. The external
sheath about the entire muscle is the epimysium
(Williams, 1991; Dyce et al., 2010). The connective
tissue dispersed in or about the muscles varies from
dense to loose in consistency. Literature searches
made in relation to the histological features of the
triceps brachii muscle in camel and cattle was not
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seen. Hence, the present work was aimed at bridging
the gap due to the paucity of information in this area.
Materials and Method
Forelimbs from 25 male camels (Camelus
dromedarius) and those of 25 male cattle (Zebu type)
each within the ages of 6 months to 7 years were
purchased from Sokoto Municipal Modern abattoir.
The age of each animal was determined, prior to
slaughter, using the method of Wilson (1984) and
Dyce et al. (2010), while evaluation to exclude any
animal with musculoskeletal deformity or diseases
was done through physical examination. The live
body weights of the animals were estimated using
linear body measurement based on the formula of
Yagil (1994).
The limbs obtained were wrapped in clean polythene
bags and transported in a clean cool box containing
ice cubes to the Laboratory in the Department of
Veterinary Anatomy, Usmanu Danfodiyo University,
Sokoto-Nigeria, where the triceps brachii muscles
were all carefully dissected out using the methods of
Chibuzo (2006) as slightly modified by Sonfada
(2008) after most of the connective tissues
ensheathing the muscle were trimmed off.
One centimeter (1cm2) of each muscle sample was
taken from the middle part of the muscle belly and
fixed in 10% formalin for normal H&E histological
preparation (Drury et al., 1967). The prepared slides
were viewed using a microscope (Olympus® CH 23,
Germany) at different magnifications (x40, x100,
x400) thereafter photomicrographs were obtained
using a Digital Camera (Samsung® ES10, 8.1 Mega
Pixels). The photomicrographs obtained were further
transferred into a computer (Compac® Laptop,
HDM, Presario CQ60) for further evaluation and
detailed histologic studies.
Results
The results presented the triceps brachii muscle
across different ages in both camel and cattle
studied. Histologically, the triceps brachii muscles
from both camel and cattle showed typical features
of skeletal muscle. In transverse section, the muscle
photomicrograph was seen showing the perimysium
encircling the muscle fascicle, and the endomysium
covering each muscle fibre (Plate 1). As presented
on the plates (Plates 2-13) below, the comparative
muscle photomicrographs generally demonstrated
that the camel’s muscles have well outlined muscle
fascicle, prominent endomysium surrounding the
muscle fibres and prominent muscle fibres than that
obtained in the cattle. However, all general structure
of muscle was seen among both camel and cattle.
Plate 1: A photomicrograph of a cross section of a normal skeletal muscle of a camel (H&E x150).
Muscle fascicle
Perimysium
Endomysium
Muscle fibre
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Plate 2: A photomicrograph of a Triceps brachii
from 6 months old camel showing clearly distinct
endomysium (arrow) surrounding muscle fibres (I)
(H&E x100).
Plate 3: Photomicrograph of a Triceps brachii of 6
months cattle showing less distinct endomysium
(arrow) around muscle fibre but with clear muscle
fascicles (F) outline (H&E x100).
Plate 4: A photomicrograph of triceps brachii from
1 year old camel showing perimysium (P) with
some faint endomysial outline (arrow) and some
clear muscle fascicles (F) (H&E x 100).
Plate 5: A photomicrograph of triceps brachii from
1 year old camel showing perimysium (P) with
indistinct endomysial outline (arrow) and some
clear muscle fascicles (F) (H&E x 100).
F I
I
I
P F
P
P
F
F
F
F
P
P
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Plate 6: A photomicrograph of triceps brachii
from 3 years old camel showing perimysium
(P) with some faint endomysial outline and
some clear muscle fascicles (F) (H&E x100).
Plate 7: A photomicrograph of triceps brachii
from 3 years old cattle showing perimysium (P)
with indistinct endomysial outline (arrow) and
some clear muscle fascicles (F) (H&E x100).
Plate 8: A photomicrograph of triceps brachii from
3 years old camel showing prominent perimysium
(P), clear endomysial outline (arrow) and clear
muscle fascicles (F) (H&E x100).
Plate 9: A photomicrograph of triceps brachii from
3 years old cattle showing prominent perimysium
(P), indistinct endomysial outline (arrow) and clear
muscle fascicles (F) (H&E x100).
F
P P
P
P
F
P F
F
F
P F
F
P F F F
P
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Plate 10: Photomicrograph of triceps brachii
from 5 years old camel showing muscle
fascicles (F), endomysium (arrow) and
perimysium (P) (H&E x100).
Plate 11: Photomicrograph of triceps brachii
from 5 years old cattle showing muscle
fascicles (F) with ill-defined endomysium
(arrow) and perimysium (P) (H&E x100).
Plate 12: Photomicrograph of triceps brachii
from 7 years old camel showing muscle fascicles
(F), with ill-defined endomysium (arrow) (H&E
x100).
Plate 13: Photomicrograph of triceps brachii
from 7 years old cattle showing muscle fascicles
(F), with no defined endomysium (H&E x100).
A
F
P
F
F
P
F F
P
F
F
F
F
F
F
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Discussion
The normal appearance of the muscles observed in
this study agreed with the report of Junqueira and
Carneiro (2005) on normal skeletal muscle
architectures. However, the observed prominent and
clear muscle architecture in the Camel (as compared
to those of Cattle) was in agreement with Kadim et
al. (2009) who reported that camel muscle had fine
muscle grain (muscle fibres) than cattle. This
attribute of the camel muscle could be an appealing
potential for utilizing this species in the meat
industry. According to Goldspink, (1972) and
Swatland, (1984), fibre architecture can have an
effect on the relative growth of gross muscle
dimensions during development this was however
noted in the course of this work, as it was grossly
noticed that the Camel’s triceps brachii was larger
and more massive than that of the Cattle.
Although ultrastructural evaluation of the studied
muscle was not part of the present study, available
information on skeletal muscles revealed that when
muscle tissues are viewed microscopically, very
regular transverse striations are seen. These
striations are caused by specialized contractile
organelles, the myofibrils, found in muscle. The
striations arise from alternating, protein dense A-
bands and less dense I-bands within the myofibril.
Bisecting the I-bands are dark lines known as Z-
lines. The area between two Z lines being known as
a sarcomere. The less dense I-band is made up
primarily of thin filaments while the A-band is made
up of thick filaments and some overlapping thin
filaments (Goll et al., 1984).
Skeletal muscle has a very complex organization, in
part to allow muscle to efficiently transmit force
originating in the myofibrils to the entire muscle and
ultimately to the limb or structure that is moved. A
relatively thick sheath of connective tissue, the
epimysium, encloses the entire muscle, in most
muscles; the epimysium is continuous with tendons
that link muscles to bones (Rahaman et al., 2010).
As seen in the present work, the muscle is
subdivided into bundles or groupings of muscle
cells. These bundles (also known as fasciculi) are
surrounded by another sheath of connective tissue,
the perimysium. A thin layer of connective tissue,
the endomysium, surrounds the muscle cells
themselves. The endomysium lies above the muscle
cell membrane (sarcolemma) and consists of a
basement membrane that is associated with an outer
layer (reticular layer) that is surrounded by a layer of
fine collagen fibrils imbedded in a matrix (Bailey
and Light, 1989). This study however, could not
capture the collagen fibrils associated with the
muscle.
The finer and clearer muscle fibres (grains) observed
from the triceps brachii of camel than those observed
for the cattle could be one of the attributes making
the camel muscle (meat) to look so appealing
grossly, and probably coupled with other factors
such as colour as observed previously by Kadim and
colleagues (2008) that camel meat has a raspberry
red to dark brown colouration with fine fibre grains.
This work was however able to reveal the
histological differentiation of the triceps brachii
muscle among cattle and camel, establishing that
though both had normal muscle architecture
histology, the camel had better oriented, clear and
fine muscle structural arrangement in terms of the
muscle fascicles as well as the muscle fibre outline.
Further work is hereby recommended to be
performed in the same area using electron
microscopy so as to be able to establish the
ultrastructural details of this muscle in these animal
species.
Conflict of Interests
The researchers wish to state that there is no conflict
of interest within or among the authors with regards
to the publication of this article.
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