Could someone please confirm if those vacuolated structures are goblet cells? And whether the sections exhibit signs of inflammation.
Context:
I am conducting histological analysis of the anterior intestine (duodenum) of Nile tilapia subjected to a plant-based diet vs. fishmeal diet.
Some of the sections appeared abnormal (see first 3 photos) compared to most of our samples (last photo). Large vacuolated structures were observed in clumps in the mucosal layer, interspersed with the usual columnar enterocytes. I suspect these are goblet cells that hyperproliferated. The submucosal layer also appears thicker and eosinophilic.
Due to the unusual morphology of these sections, at first, I thought maybe our samples were contaminated with some stomach tissue. But I am quite sure we obtained sections from posterior to the pylorus.
These vacuoles maybe goblet cells ,if you can use histochemical stain to specify goblet and muocus cells by periodic Schiff reagent with Alcian Blue, when using this method the goblet appears Blue without any problem. With my best wishes
I agree with Samira S Assem that they may be goblet cells. These cell types can become enlarged and numerous as a defense strategy to ingested foreign materials, producing a thickened mucus layer to protect the gut mucosa. While their general morphology looks similar to that of goblet cells in H&E stain, you should seriously consider Alician blue and Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) staining to be sure.
In my opinion, the first pictures show cross-sections of the anterior part of the stomach. This part of the stomach is characterized by a large number of goblet cells organized into tubular glands and a thick muscular layer. If more information is needed, I suggest looking at the following papers:
There is also no evidence of inflammation in the images shown, but it is likely that some lymphocyte/eosinophil clusters can be detected at higher magnification.
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