Abstract
Background:
The golden hamster is a model of choice for the investigation of many visceral and splenic infections, neoplastic and retrospective lesions.
Aim:
To study the morphological, histological and histochemical structure of hamsters’ spleen.
Methods:
Samples were collected from eight healthy adult golden hamsters then, fixed with 10% buffered formalin later, samples processed, sectioned and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin as well as Masson’s Trichrome stain. Other slides were further stained with Periodic Acid Schiff and Alcian blue 2.5 stain (PAS/AB) for histochemical evolution, the gross measurement was performed for the splenic length, width, thickness, while the histological measurements included the splenic capsular and trabecula thickness, diameter of white pulp follicles, splenic sinusoids and central arteries and proportion of white and red pulps.
Results:
The macroscopic findings revealed that the spleen was red-brown lanciform and was on the left side of the dorsolateral abdominal wall. The morphological measurements for splenic length, width, and thickness were 26.6 ± 7.67, 4.17 ± 1.65, and 1.70 ± 0.01 mm, respectively. The histological observations showed that the splenic capsule was composed of two layers (serosal and subserosal). The inner layer sends trabeculae dividing the splenic parenchyma irregularly, and the splenic parenchyma comprised the white and red pulp. The white pulp follicles composed of the mantle and marginal zones and the PALS (periarteriolar lymphatic sheath), while the red pulp was constituted of splenic cords and splenic sinuses. The histomorphological findings showed that white pulp follicles and the central artery mean diameter was 252.62 ± 8.07 µm and 54.45 ± 0.36 µm respectively, the proportion of white to red pulp was 0.49 ± 0.01, the splenic capsule, trabecula and the wall of splenic arteries showed an intense positive activity to PAS stain and negative or weak in other splenic structures.
Conclusions:
The similarities and differences of the spleen between the laboratory animals and hamster were clear in this article, so understanding the morphological and histological structure of the spleen present a significant assistant with species identification to select the appropriate experimental animal model in future medical research.

Key words: Golden hamster, Histology, Laboratory animals, Morphology, Spleen