Guinea pig cecum structure in relation to digestion function

Abstract

Guinea pigs are often usen as animal models in investigations, thus there is an acute interest in these animals. The apartenence of guinea pigs in the Rodentia order is still a matter of debate, which determined us to shed a light on the microscopical structure of the cecum in order to understand whether this segment is responsible for most of the digestion in this species. We harvested the cecum from 5 adult guinea pigs, brought for necropsy examination in the Department of Necropsy (UASVM Cluj-Napoca). The samples were processed for paraffin embedding and stained with three different procedures: Goldner’s trichrome method, PAS reaction and Alcian blue stain. The cecum in guinea pigs presents the four characteristic tunics for the digestive tract. The cecum has a rather thin wall in guinea pigs, the mucosa being the best represented tunic. PAS-positive and Alcian blue-positive goblet cells are present in small numbers in both the surface and glandular epithelium. The obtained structural information suggests that the digestion is only partially taking place in the cecum in guinea pigs, completing the one taking place in the small intestine.