Data of Argyrophil Cells in the Digestive Tract of Two Urodele Amphibians

In order to explore the morphological characteristics, distribution position, and distribution density of argyrophil cells in the digestive tract of urodele amphibians in the Maoershan Nature Reserve, two urodelan species were selected: Hynobius maoershanensis and Pachytriton inexpectatus. Each part of the digestive tract was separated by anatomical means, and the experiment was performed using routine paraffin sectioning, Grimelius staining, block observation, photo counting, and other procedures. Sections were observed under an Olympus BX-63 automatic fluorescence microscope, and 5–6 fields of view were randomly taken from each section. A total of 20 fields of view were taken. The magnification was 400× (objective lens 40×, eyepiece 10×). The number of positive cells was counted, and the mean value was used (mean ± SD) to show the distribution density of the argyrophil cells. Before statistical analysis, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was performed on each group of experimental data,. Then, non-parametric tests were used to process the data. A Kruskal-Wallis test was used to examine the differences in the distribution density of argyrophils in different parts of the digestive tract of the same animal, and a Mann-Whitney U-test was used to examine the differences in the distribution density of argyrophils in the same part of the digestive tract of different animals. The significance level was set at 0.05 (two-sided). Data analysis and inspection were performed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS 24.0 statistical software