To perform a microscopic study of the glands attached to the male urethra, we used two adult capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrocaeris) from which fragments of the urethral glands were collected, immersed in Bouin's fixative solution, washed thoroughly with 70% to absolute alcohol, submitted to routine histological techniques and stained with hematoxylin/eosin and Masson's trichromic method. The morphological findings were: Vas deferens has a thickening of the wall without granular epithelium and with unchanged lumen; the vesicular gland has a secretory epithelium of pseudostratified columnar type; the prostate gland has a high and ramified mucous membrane covered with pseudostratified cylindrical epithelium. Male capybaras have vesicular, prostate as urethral glands. In the material examined, no secretory epithelium corresponding to bulbourethral glands was identified; morphologically it resembles to the other histricomorphs.
Urethral glands; rodents; capybara; Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris; microscopy
