Studies on morphology and histology of digestive tract in Liza haematocheila captived on the coast of Pearl River estuary

This research was carried out to investigate morphology and histology of digestive tract in Liza haematocheila captivied on the coast of Pearl River estuary, for the purpose of understanding the important physiologocal functions including ingestion, digestion and absorption. The experiment was done by the methods of anatomy, tissue sections and optical microscopy. Results showed that digestive tract of L.haematocheila was composed of buccal-pharynxcavity, esophagus, stomach and intestine, and the intestine was composed of anterior intestine, mid-intestine and posterior intestine. The digestive organization structure of L.haematocheila was divided into 4 layers: mucosa, submucosa, muscle layer and serosa. The mucosa located in the inner of gastrointestinal wall, which was mainly composed of mucosal epithelium and lamina propria.Subimuwse was composed of loose connective tissue, and contained vasculars, nerves and lymphoid tissue. Muscle layer was dense with longitudinal muscle in outer layer of muscle and circular muscle in inner layer. The outer surface of the digestive tract was covered by a thin layer of serosa. The differences between the various parts of digestive tract were mainly characterized as type of folds and epithelial cells, structure of muscularis, type of muscle tissue and number of goblet cells.