Mouse Stomach Fundus Tissue - 40x
Shown above is a three-dimensional reconstruction of mouse stomach fundus tissue stained with Alexa Fluor 350 (wheat germ agglutinin; lectins), Alexa Fluor 568 (phalloidin; actin), and SYTOX Green (nuclei). Similar to ruminants, rodents often reingest material that was already partially digested. Rather than eating cud, however, rodents ingest their own fecal pellets. This activity allows the animals to obtain a larger proportion of the nutrients available in the plant food they normally consume. Receiving maximum health benefits from eating plants is difficult without multi-step digestion because the thick cell walls and cellulose they contain are very difficult to break down.