Abstract
The morphological and histological characteristics of the fish liver varies among species. No specific model described the liver of Teleostei. ‘Oblada melanura’ which is the most common sparid fish species in the Libyan markets with significant economic effects. This study aim to describe anatomical and histological structure of the liver of O. melanura. 215 specimens, with a total length ranged from 127 to 261 mm and the liver weight from 0.10 to 4.53 g, were obtained from Tripoli coast. The livers were fixed in 10% formalin, then sectioned at 7 µm and stained with hematoxylin and eosin and PAS. Morphologically, the liver is a triangle shaped with two lobes, bigger anterior and smaller posterior and has two surfaces: smooth dorsal and lobular ventral. Histologically, the largest proportion is the liver tissue, while the smallest is the pancreatic tissue, as well, blood vessels and bile ducts. The hepatocytes are polygonal, with spherical nucleus and a dark prominent nucleolus. Pancreatic tissue was observed in visceral portion of liver, formed by pancreatic exocrine acini, whilst no endocrine tissue found in the liver tissue. This study concluded that the exocrine gland of the pancreas of O. melanura found inside the liver tissue.