Abstract
Evaluation of camel neutrophil's structure and ultrastructure is essential for fundamental and applied research on innate immunobiology. There is little information on camel neutrophil's ultrastrucure. Healthy camel blood neutrophils were isolated, prepared, and stained for light, scanning, transmission electron microscopy, and organelles' biometry. We observed that (1) the nuclei of healthy camel neutrophils were highly lobulated, predominantly ≥5 lobules/nucleus, with euchromatin and hetrochromatin portions and very low ratio of nucleus to cytoplasm, (2) surface of neutrophils contained many psuedopods, and (3) the cytoplasm contained enormous granules with different sizes and forms and high density at the center, as well as with many different organelles such as abundant mitochondria, rough endoplasmic reticulum, microtubules, phagolysosome, vacuoles, and Golgi apparatus. Biometric analyses of key organelles in neutrophils also shed some new lights on the features of camel neutrophils. This ultrastructural study emphasizes the notion that camel neutrophils are highly equipped with the cytoskeletal machinery for efficient organelle movement, phagocytosis, and microbicidal activities. The ultrastructural features of camel neutrophils observed in this study would be outstandingly comparable to the neutrophils of other ruminants and needs further detailed comparative study.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ali AM, Abdo MS, Hassanain MM, Prentis PF (1989) Fine structure of the camel neutrophilic granulocytes with special references to its function. Z Mikrosk Anat Forsch 103:985–992
Bainton DF, Ullyot JL, Farquhar MG (1971) The development of neutrophilic polymorphonuclear leukocytes in human bone marrow. J Exp Med 134:907–934
Borregaard N, Cowland JB (1997) Granules of the human neutrophilic polymorphonuclear leukocyte. Blood 89:3503–3521
Borregaard NL, Christensen OW, Bejerrum OW, Birgens HS, Clemmensen I (1990) Identification of a highly mobilizable subset of human neutrophil intracellular vesicles that contains tetranectin and latent alkaline phosphatase. J Clin Invest 85:408–416
Borregaard N, Sørensen OE, Theilgaard-Mönch K (2007) Neutrophil granules: a library of innate immunity proteins. Trends Immunol 28:340–345
Brinkmann VU, Reichard C, Goosmann B, Fauler Y, Uhlemann DS, Weiss YW, Zychlinsky A (2004) Neutrophil extracellular traps kill bacteria. Science 303:1532–1535
Burvenich C, Van Merris V, Mehrzad J, Diez-Fraile A, Duchateau L (2003) Severity of E. coli mastitis is mainly determined by cow factors. Vet Res 34:521–562
Carlson GP, Kaneko JJ (1973) Isolation of leukocytes from bovine peripheral blood. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 142:853–856
Cross PC, Mercer KL (1993) Cell and Ultrastructure. WH Freeman and company, New York, pp 304–316
Dykstra MJ (1992) Theory, techniques and troubleshooting. In Biological electron microscopy. New York: Plenum press 175–180
Gennaro RB, Dewald B, Horisberger U, Gubler HU, Baggiolini MA (1983) A novel type of cytoplasmic granule in bovine neutrophils. J Cell Biol 96:1651–1661
Hampton MB, Kettle AJ, Winterbourn CC (1998) Inside the neutrophil phagosome: oxidants, myeloperoxidase, and bacterial killing. Blood 92:3007–3017
Heyneman R, Burvenich C, Vercauteren R (1990) Interaction between the respiratory burst activity of neutrophil leukocytes and experimentally induced E. coli mastitis in cows. J Dairy Sci 73:985–994
Johnson EH, Muirhead DE, al-Busaidy R, Musa BE (1999) The ultrastructural morphology of the camel eosinophil. Vet J 157:79–84
Mayer SJ, Keen PM, Craven N, Bourn FJ (1989) Regulation of phagolysosome pH in bovine and human neutrophils: the role of NADPH oxidase activity and an Na+/H + antiporter. J Leukoc Biol 45:239–248
Mehrzad J (2012) Molecular aspects of neutrophils as pivotal circulating cellular innate immune systems to protect mammary gland from pathogens. In: Kanwar J.R. (Ed.), Recent Advances in Immunology to Target Cancer, Inflammation and Infections. ISBN: 978-953-51-0592-3. InTech Publishing Inc. pp. 385–422
Mehrzad J, Dosogne H, Meyer E, Heyneman R, Burvenich C (2001) Respiratory burst activity of blood and milk neutrophils in dairy cows during different stages of lactation. J Dairy Res 68:399–415
Mehrzad J, Duchateau L, Burvenich C (2009) Phagocytic and bactericidal activity of blood and milk-resident neutrophils against Staphylococcus aureus in primiparous and multiparous cows during early lactation. Vet Microbiol 134:106–112
Mehrzad J, Burvenich C, Paape M (2010) Role of neutrophils in protection of udder from infection in high yielding dairy cows. Iran J Vet Res 31:102–118
Mehrzad J, Klein G, Kamphues J, Wolf P, Grabowski N, Schuberth HJ (2011) In vitro effects of very low levels of aflatoxin B1 on free radicals production and bactericidal activity of bovine blood neutrophils. Vet Immunol Immunopathol 141:16–25
Nathan C (2006) Neutrophils and immunity: challenges and opportunities. Nat Rev Immunol 6:173–182
Paape MJ, Mehrzad J, Zhao X, Detileux J, Burvenich C (2002) Defense of the bovine mammary gland by polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocytes. J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia 7:109–121
Raji AR, Naserpour M (2007) Light and electron microscopic studies of the trachea in the one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius). Anat Histol Embryol 36:10–13
Reeves EP, Lu H, Jacobs HL, Messina CGM, Bolsover S, Gabella G, Potma EO, Warley A, Roes J, Segal AW (2002) Killing activity of neutrophils is mediated through activation of proteases by K + flux. Nature (London) 416:291–297
Smits E, Cifrian E, Guidry AJ, Rainard P, Burvenich C, Paape MJ (1996) Cell culture system for studying bovine neutrophil diapedesis. J Dairy Sci 79:1353–1360
Sossin WS, Fisher JM, Scheller RH (1990) Sorting within the regulated secretory pathway occurs in the trans-Golgi network. J Cell Biol 110:1–12
Stevens MG, Van Poucke M, Peelman LJ, Rainard P, De Spiegeleer B, Rogiers C, Van de Walle GR, Duchateau L, Burvenich C (2011) Anaphylatoxin C5a-induced tolllike receptor 4 signaling in bovine neutrophils. J Dairy Sci 94:152–164
Van Merris V, Meyer E, Burvenich C (2002) Functional maturation during bovine granulopoiesis. J Dairy Sci 85:2859–2868
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the grant (number 2902, 20/11/2010) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. The authors thank Mrs Pesyan and Mrs Sadegian for their technical assistance for SEM and TEM imaging analyses.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mehrzad, J., Maleki, M., Raji, A. et al. An ultrastructural investigation of the blood neutrophils in camel (Camelus dromedarius). Comp Clin Pathol 23, 885–892 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00580-013-1707-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00580-013-1707-7