Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Isolation, Fixation and Characterization of Juvenile Gilthead Seabream Head Kidney Leukocytes by Flow Cytometry
Published on: May 9, 2025
Morphological and histological characterization of an ectopically mineralized structure in a gilthead sea bream
Nguyen Phuc Thuong1,2, Edina Prondvai1, Barbara De Kegel1
1Evolutionary Morphology of Vertebrates, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Abstract:
In this study, we describe an abnormal ectopically mineralized structure (EMS) that was found inside the skull of a juvenile Sparus aurata that also showed a bilateral opercular deformation. The overall phenotype and tissue composition were studied using micro-CT scanning and histological analyses. The ectopic structure occupies a large volume of the brain cavity, partially extruding into the gill cavity. It shows a dense mineralization and an extracellular matrix-rich phenotype, with variation in both the morphology and size of the cell lacunae, combined with an irregular fibre organization inside the matrix. This study is the first to report such an EMS in a juvenile teleost fish, where the tissue does not resemble any other connective tissue type described in bony fish so far. The tissue phenotype seems to rule out that the EMS corresponds to a tumorous cartilage. Yet, it is rather reminiscent of a highly mineralized structure found in cartilaginous fish, where it is suggested to be associated with damage repair.
More Related Videos
07:29Author Spotlight: Advanced Techniques for Characterizing Tissue Mineralization in Bone Regeneration Research
Published on: September 27, 2024
06:07Author Spotlight: Establishing a New Fluorescence-Based Protocol for In Vivo Mitochondrial Morphology Analysis in Parkinson's Disease
Published on: June 23, 2023
Related Concept Videos
Water and Mineral Acquisition
Plastic Deformations
Plastic Deformations
Minerals
Major...
Temperature Dependent Deformation
Deformations in a Symmetric Member in Bending
When the member is segmented into tiny cubic elements, it is observed that the primary stress...