Comparative Study on Distribution of Sebaceous and Sweat Glands in Skin of Different Domestic Animals

Abstract

Background: Skin is the largest organ of the body, accounting for 15-20% of the total body weight and acts as a barrier between the external and internal environment and maintain homeostasis.The sweat and sebaceous glands in dermis of skin play vital role in developing the adaptive ability to the heat stress. Besides this, the distribution pattern and number of these glands vary in different animals that may aid in identification of different species.Methods: The study was conducted on abdominal skin of 36 adult cattle, buffalo, horse, goat, pig and dog (six sample of each) collected from abattoir, Veterinary clinics and post-mortem hall of GADVASU, Ludhiana. After collection, the tissues were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin and processed for paraffin block preparation. The paraffin sections of 5-6 µm were cut and stained with hematoxylin and eosin stain. Result: The study revealed that the sebaceous glands were multilobular, alveolar glands comprised of several layers of epithelial cells and were associated with hair follicles in all species studied. The number of sebaceous glands/mm2 was significantly higher (p≤0.05) in goat (1.60± 0.11) than in pig (0.44±0.06) whereas sebaceous gland diameter was significantly higher (p≤0.05) in buffalo (109.83±6.14 µm) than in goat (61.16 ±2.42 µm).The sweat glands were of saccular and simple coiled tubular type and most of them were associated with hair follicles. The number of sweat glands/mm2 was the highest in horse (3.10 ± 0.24) and the least in buffalo (0.76 ±0.05). Sweat gland diameter was significantly higher (p≤0.05) maximum in buffalo (123±3.15 µm) and minimum in goat (50.33 ±2.85 µm) and the difference.

Dynamics of Thermolysis and Skin Microstructure in Water Buffaloes Reared in Humid Tropical Climate—A Microscopic and Thermographic Study

“…This study found mean density of 2.00 HF per mm 2 , matching the results by Debbarma et al ( 20 ) and Raheem, Elias and Ahmed ( 18 ), who indicate hair density in buffaloes of 1.91 and 2.78 HF per mm 2 , respectively. However, the number of HF in the literature varies, with values ranging from 91.84 cm −2 for Murrah animals ( 86 ), 135–145 cm −2 for Mediterranean buffaloes ( 17 ), and 394 cm −2 for Egyptian buffaloes ( 15 ). In fact, the lower hair density of buffaloes may have a double effect.…”

“…Thus, the greater the gland activity at a given moment, the higher the possibility of the sweat produced being secreted, favoring the reduction of the skin ST. To the best of our understanding, such information is a first since no reference values were found in the literature to compare those variables. The recent studies have assessed the type and diameter of sweat ( 20 ) and sebaceous ( 21 ) glands in different regions of the body of buffaloes, in addition to their distribution ( 86 ); however, with no mention of the percentage of gland area, which is an indicative of activity of the respective glands.…”

Effect of in utero exposure to hyperthermia on postnatal hair length, skin morphology, and thermoregulatory responses

“…Within the skin layers are sweat glands and sebaceous glands. The number and distribution of skin glands play a role in the adaptive ability of the skin to heat stress (Raghav et al, 2021). Sweat glands bring water to the skins surface to aid in the evaporative path of heat loss (i.e., SR) and each hair follicle is associated with a sebaceous gland, which releases sebum to protect against destructive agents and assists in heat tolerance (Saxena et al, 1994;Berman, 2011).…”

Efficient Topical Treatment of Canine Nodular Sebaceous Hyperplasia with a Nitric Acid and Zinc Complex Solution

“…Sebaceous glands are part of the pilosebaceous unit and, as such, are distributed throughout the haired skin and mucocutaneous junctions of dogs and cats [1]. They are multilobulated, alveolar glands under hormonal influence [2][3][4] that produce lipid-rich sebum, which is essential for epidermal barrier function.…”