Differentiation of oxyntic cells during early ontogenesis in the bovine

The origin and the differentiation of oxyntic cells in fetal bovine abomasum were investigated using transmission electron and light microscopic methods. In the oxyntic gland region oxyntic cell precursors and immature oxyntic cells appear as early as at the end of the first trimester of gestation--much earlier than described in any other mammalian animal species. Immature oxyntic cells are characterized by long apical microvilli, by their triangular-shaped light cytoplasm rich in large and numerous mitochondria, by the existence of vesicular profiles and by the incipient invagination of the apical plasma membrane forming a primitive intracellular canaliculus expanding into central areas of the cell. The oxyntic cell represents the first exocrine cell type developing from secretory granule-containing cells in the base of the primitive gastric glands.