الفهرس 
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Abstract
For all species, the special sense of olfaction provides critical information about the environment. Olfactory sensory information is transported by olfactory sensory neurons of the olfactory epithelium to the cerebral cortex where olfactory perception occurs. Histologically, the olfactory epithelium is composed of three chief types of cells; the olfactory receptor cells, sustentacular cells and basal cells. Olfactory epithelium is affected physiologically by several factors; ageing is the best known among such factors. Ageing, in turn is affected by sex differences. This study aims to observe and describe age-related changes in the histology of Syrian hamster olfactory epithelium. It shall also describe discrepancies in these changes, if present, between both genders. 24 Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) were used in this study and were divided into 2 major groups, each of which was further subdivided into 2 subgroups, where each subgroup contains 6 hamsters as follows; group I a: adult male Syrian hamsters (weighing 90-110 gm), group I b: adult female Syrian hamsters (weighing 90-110 gm), group II a: senile male Syrian hamsters (weighing 120-140 gm), group II b: senile female Syrian hamsters (weighing 120-140 gm). at the desired time of necropsy, the hamsters were sacrificed and specimens from their olfactory epithelium were obtained and processed for examination by light microscopy. Study results revealed decreased number of nuclei and hence epithelial thickness and receptor count in group II as compared to group I. Regarding gender, however, no significant difference was found within each group.
Conclusion: Olfactory epithelial thickness and receptor count decrease with ageing, however, gender does not significantly contribute to changes in these parameters.