. 2021 Feb 25;12:627499. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.627499

TABLE 6.

Morphometric analysis of intestinal tract in Nile tilapia, O. niloticus fed diets with commercial immunostimulants for 8 weeks.

Items	Control	Yeast Plus^®	Sanolife PRO-F^®	Biotronic^® Top³	Digestarom^®
Villi height (μm)	266.67^c ± 11.60	401.00^ab ± 7.81	417.33^a ± 3.84	383.67^ab ± 7.53	374.33^b ± 6.93
Villi width (μm)	32.33^d ± 3.52	59.33^ab ± 2.33	62.00^a ± 2.51	46.00^c ± 3.21	47.00^bc ± 1.73
Area of absorption (μm²)	8585^c ± 802.3	23828^a ± 1389.7	25887^a ± 1227.3	17667^b ± 1424	17583^b ± 583.7
Crypt depth	38.66^c ± 3.17	70.66^ab ± 3.48	77.66^a ± 2.96	64.33^ab ± 2.90	58.00^b ± 2.64
Goblet cells	++	+++	+++	++	++

++: Normal number of goblet cells, +++: Moderate number of goblet cells. Data represented as means ± SE (n = 15). Within rows, means with different superscripts a, b, c, and d indicating that their corresponding means are significantly different at P < 0.05.