Histological and Histochemical investigation of the development of the New -Zealand rabbit’s gastric glands

The present study aimed to provide a detailed description of the normal development of rabbit stomach and focusing on the histogenesis of gastric glands. In a total, 24 New Zealand White rabbit fetuses were collected at gestational days 21, 25, and 29. The stomachs of the collected fetuses were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin and prepared by paraffin technique then stained with Harris's Haematoxylin and Eosin, Masson's Trichrome stain, Orcein, Periodic acid-Schiff, Alcian blue, and Bromophenol blue stains. The results revealed that, at 21stgestational day, the different parts of the stomach including, cardia, fundus and pylorus could be easily distinguished. On 25th developmental day, the gastric mucosal folds were more prominent in the cardia than fundus and pylorus. At 29th developmental day, tunica mucosa and tunica submucosa of the fetal stomach were laid in longitudinally oriented folds known as rugae. The gastric gland in this age became well developed containing well-demarcated oxyntic and peptic cells. In conclusion, the rabbit stomach is completely differentiated during the embryonic life and the gastric glands were functionally active.