Banding pattern and fibrillogenesis of ceratotrichia in shark fins

Abstract

Study by light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy of the distribution, structure and growth of ceratotrichia in the anterodorsal fin of a lemon shark, Negaprion brevirostris , and in the tailfin of a nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum , shows that the ceratotrichia are large collagen fibers which develop in bilateral rows within the dermis. Surrounding each ceratotrichium is a layer of peritrichial fibroblasts containing secretory vesicles, which appear to be the source of matrix constituents. The peritrichial matrix contains bundles of fine, unbanded collagen fibrils as well as larger, banded fibrils like those in the matrix of ordinary connective tissue. The structure of the peritrichial fibroblasts and of the subjacent peritrichial matrix is the same as that of the fibroblasts and matrix of the conventional connective tissue throughout the fin dermis. Ceratotrichia grow by apposition of collagen fibrils from the peritrichial matrix. In cross section the ceratotrichia appear layered, evidently because of close packing of constituent fibrils in lamellae. In longitudinal section the ceratotrichia exhibit the conventional a, b, c, d and e bands of collagen. The e bands of show two distinct subbands, and the b bands three subbands. Periodicity of the banding pattern is approximately 640 Å like that of conventional collagen fibrils.