Ultrastructure of camel basophilic granulocytes with special reference to its functions

The ultrastructure of camel basophils in peripheral circulating blood of the Arabian camel were studied in order to provide detailed description of its constituents. Camel basophils were found to possess pseudopodia of varying lengths and numbers. Electron micrographs of camel basophilic granulocytes reveal that the cytoplasm is of moderately electron density. Membrane bound granules of different sizes and varying electron density, spherical or oval in shape, were observed, vacuoles of various forms, a well-defined Golgi complex, few rough endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria were noticed randomly distributed in the cytoplasm. The results obtained were compared with that reported for other mammalian species and interpretation of the functional activities of the basophil intracellular organelles were discussed.