海産コケムシの一種,チゴケムシの体腔細胞と組織に関する研究  [in Japanese] A study on the coelomocytes and histology of the marine bryozoan,Watersipora subovoidea  [in Japanese]

The marine bryozoan,Watersipora subovoided,is a common bryozoan in Japan.Bryozoa are generally colonial and sessile animals.Colonial and sessile animals often show colony specificity (=allogeneic recognition between colonies),as colonial ascidians.Colonies of W.subovoided also show colony specificity(Ishii and Saito,1995).In colony specificity of colonial ascidians,blood cells and humoral factors play key roles.Then,we firstly exmined the coelomocytes(=blood cells in ascidiens) of W.subovoidea.There are 4 distinct cell types in this bryozoan;granular cells,granular filopodial cells,vacuolated cells and phagocytes.Among them,only phagocytes had ability of phagocytosis.We also examined the morphology of W.subovoidea histologically.