Hair germs in the skin of adult wild Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus Berkenhout, 1769)
Uhr, G.
Zeitschrift für Mikroskopisch-Anatomische Forschung 102(1): 63-70
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-3107 PMID: 3388952 Document Number: 315833
Studied the skin (integumentum commune) of 2 adult wild Norway rats (.female. 350 g, .male. 380 g), which develops postnatal cutaneous appendages up to the stage of the hair germ. These early morphological structures in the epidermis of arising hair follicles can be found in all body regions researched (anterior back, hind back, side), in which the hair follicles reach the anagen hair cycle phase. The rodents were trapped in the regions of the Harz mountains and lived, exposed to the weather, in a preserve outside from October 20th 1980 to the end of February 1981. Periods of extreme cold, snowfall, and enhanced radiation, as a consequence of the snowcovered environment, alternated with relatively warm periods and with temporal rainfall. The findings obtained are compared with those of other authors about the prenatal development of epidermal cutaneous appendages and are discussed to point out possible reasons for their formation in adult skin.