Membranous Cytoplasmic Organelle

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Author(s):  
S. Arumugam ◽  
Sarasa Bharati Arumugam

Adenoaas of the pituitary are no longer classified based on their tinctorial affinity to dyes. With the advent of the newer methods of sophisticated technology, it is now possible to classify. These depending upon the type of hormone secreted based either on histochemical techniques or on ultrastructural characteristics. The latter provides an insight into the cytoplasmic organelle morphology which offers a delightful feast to the eye as well.This paper presents the ultrastructural characters of the pituitary adenoma as seen in Madras. 171 adenomas (124 males and 47 females) were seen during 1972-1989, classified at the light microscope level as 159 chromophobe, 2 basophilic, 4 eosinophilic and 6 mixed adenomas.Ultrastructural examination showed that the sparsely granular prolactin cell adenoma is the commonest adenoma to be encountered closely followed by the growth hormone cell adenoma, null cell adenoma, the mixed cell adenoma and others.


1968 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-128
Author(s):  
I. FRIEDMANN ◽  
A. L. COLWIN ◽  
LAURA H. COLWIN

Gametes of C. reinhardi lack the cell wall which vegetative cells possess. Just below the cell apex gametes form a fertilization tubule which is up to 2 µ long and 0.2 µ in diameter; its plasma membrane and that of the apex have slender tubular projections. At the base of the fertilization tubule regularly lies the choanoid body, a collar-shaped cytoplasmic organelle; the plasma membrane overlying the body appears as an electron-dense ring. Gametes possess two ‘free’ basal bodies in addition to the basal bodies of the two flagella. In the initial stage of union the conjugating cells are connected by the fertilization tubule whose plasma membrane is continuous with that of both copulants. At one end of the tubule lies a conspicuous choanoid body, but at the other end is a small structure which possibly is a homologue of the choanoid body. Subsequently, the fertilization tubule shortens and widens until finally no tubule exists and the apical ends of the two protoplasts adjoin. The merging cells then bend like a jack-knife and lateral alignment of the protoplasts occurs. This four-flagellated zygote becomes motile at about the time when the flagellar bases of the former gametes seem to approach each other and when fibrillar elements of the flagellar roots come into contact. In the motile zygote the nuclei do not fuse but remain ensheathed in the cup-shaped plastids of the two gametes. A mating of plus (+) and minus (-) strains cultured, respectively, for high and low starch content suggested that gametes of only the plus (+) mating type contain the choanoid body. Since it appears that the gamete containing the choanoid body also produces the fertilization tubule, it is inferred that gametes of only the plus (+) mating type produce the fertilization tubule. Should further investigation support this inference, it would be established that there is a structural basis for designating the plus (+) mating type as male and the minus (-) type as female. Fertilization involves fusion of the gamete membranes through the mediation of a specialized structure (the fertilization tubule) and in this respect there are similarities to certain aspects of fertilization in animal phyla. The relation of the fertilization tubule to the protoplasmic bridge of other species of Chlamydomonas is discussed.


1987 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 733-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Tran ◽  
J Y Picard ◽  
J Campargue ◽  
N Josso

An immunocytochemical method, based on the use of a polyclonal antibody raised against purified bovine anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), was used to detect AMH in Sertoli cell cytoplasm of various mammalian species, including human. Immunopurification of antiserum by AMH-affinity chromatography, although not mandatory, leads to better results and increased sensitivity. In human testicular tissue, AMH is detectable up to 6 years of age. In rats, AMH production is initiated at 13 days post coitum, peaks between 15 and 17 days, and is no longer detectable 1 week after birth. The reaction is strongest in Sertoli cells of calves, sheep, goats, and pigs, species characterized by a high degree of development of the rough endoplasmic reticulum. It is fainter in human, rat, rabbit, and cat Sertoli cells, in which the rough endoplasmic reticulum is not as abundant. This correlation is not unexpected, in view of the localization of reaction product in this cytoplasmic organelle. Preliminary results indicate that there may be a relationship between the amount of immunoreactive AMH present in testicular biopsies of intersex patients and the degree of regression of the Müllerian duct on the ipsilateral side. This may help to elucidate whether persistence of Müllerian ducts results from lack of testicular production of AMH or from peripheral resistance of the Müllerian primordia to the hormone.


1984 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 565-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Herman ◽  
D F Albertini

Vital fluorescence staining has been used in conjunction with time-lapse video image intensification microscopy to analyze the distribution and movement of endosomes, lysosomes, and mitochondria in cultured rat ovarian granulosa cells. Exposure of 5-d granulosa cell cultures to pyrene-concanavalin A (P-Con A) or 3,3'-dioctadecylindocarbocyanine-labeled low-density lipoprotein (dil-LDL) at 4 degrees C results in the formation of randomly distributed endosomes 10 min after warming to 37 degrees C that exhibit saltatory motion for 20 min. If granulosa cells are labeled at 4 degrees C with both P-Con A and dil-LDL and warmed to 37 degrees C, both ligands are found within the same endosomes which migrate centripetally to the cell center where label accumulates within phase-dense structures by 60 min. The initial endosome saltations occur over short distances (mean distance = 4.6 micron) with a mean velocity of 0.03 micron/s. Endosome saltations then cease and are followed by a gradual centriptal migration of endosomes to the cell center where they accumulate and fuse with phase-dense structures. The second phase of movement involves a continuous, unidirectional migration of endosomes over distances ranging from 5 to 40 micron at a mean velocity of 0.05 micron/s. Lysosomes were simultaneously visualized as acridine orange-staining, phase-dense structures in control cells and cells exposed to fluorescent ligands. In untreated cells, lysosomes are dispersed throughout the cytoplasm and undergo bidirectional saltations covering a mean distance of 8.7 micron with a mean velocity of 0.3 micron/s. Lysosomes redistribute centripetally to the perinuclear region of the cell by saltatory movement within 20 min of exposure to ligand. Mitochondria were visualized with the fluorescent dye rhodamine 123 in granulosa cells labeled with P-Con A and were found to redistribute to the cell center coincident with endosomes. The microtubule-disrupting agent nocodazole was found to inhibit lysosome saltations and all phases of endosome movement. Taxol, a microtubule-stabilizing agent, partially impaired lysosome movement and led to a redistribution of lysosomes into linear aggregates surrounding the nucleus. Taxol was also found to inhibit endosome movement. The data indicate that (a) endosome movement proceeds initially by saltation and later by a nonsaltatory centripetal migration in association with mitochondria, that (b) lysosomes and endosomes undergo a temporally distinct but spatially similar change in cytoplasmic distribution, and that (c) microtubules are required for the directed translocation of endosomes and lysosomes towards the cell center.


The name ‘peroxisome’ designates a special type of cytoplasmic organelle characterized by the association of one or more oxidases which produce hydrogen peroxide with catalase which destroys the hydrogen peroxide. Early work on peroxisomes has been reviewed by de Duve & Baudhuin (1966). The present paper summarizes recent advances in this field.


Development ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 125 (15) ◽  
pp. 2781-2789 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. de Cuevas ◽  
A.C. Spradling

The Drosophila oocyte develops within a cyst of 16 germline cells interconnected by ring canals. Polarized, microtubule-based transport of unknown determinants is required for oocyte formation, but whether polarity is established during or after cyst formation is not clear. We have analyzed how polarity develops in stem cells and dividing cysts by following the growth of the fusome, a vesiculated cytoplasmic organelle. Our studies show that the fusome grows by a regular, polarized process throughout the stem cell and cyst cell cycles. Each polarization cycle begins in mitosis, when the fusome segregates to a single daughter cell of each pair. Following mitosis, a ‘plug’ of fusomal material forms in each nascent ring canal and gradually fuses with the pre-existing fusome. In stem cells, the ring canal is transient and closes down after the fusome is partitioned through it. In dividing cysts, as the fusome plugs move toward the pre-existing fusome, their associated ring canals also move, changing the geometry of the cyst. At the end of each cycle of cyst growth, the fusome remains asymmetrically distributed within the cyst; one of the two cells with four ring canals retains a bigger piece of fusome than any other cell, including the other cell with four ring canals. Based on these observations, we argue that the oocyte is specified at the first cyst division.


1985 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-194
Author(s):  
L.S. Swales ◽  
D.R. Gardner

The cross-striated muscle from the heart ventricle and the smooth penis retractor muscle of the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis have been investigated by X-ray microanalysis to establish whether lanthanum can cross the plasma membrane, as has been reported by other investigators. Tissues were incubated in 1 mM ionic lanthanum before fixation in phosphate- or cacodylate-buffered fixative. X-ray mapping for emissions in the lanthanum energy range indicates a concentration of emissions that coincided only with the network of sub-surface transverse tubules formed by the invagination of the plasma membrane and with the plasma membrane/extracellular space interface. X-ray energy spectra were collected from various cell compartments; peak-to-background ratios were obtained and analysed statistically. Cacodylate buffer is less effective than phosphate buffer in precipitating lanthanum, but no evidence to suggest the redistribution of lanthanum in cacodylate-buffered preparations was found. Lanthanum is precipitated only in the sub-surface transverse tubules and at the plasma membrane/extracellular space interface in both heart ventricle muscle and penis retractor muscle, fixed in either phosphate or cacodylate buffer. There was no evidence of lanthanum precipitation in the background cytoplasm or on any cytoplasmic organelle. These results confirm our hypothesis that lanthanum does not cross the plasma membranes in these molluscan tissues.


1996 ◽  
Vol 270 (1) ◽  
pp. L88-L100 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Xue ◽  
P. R. Reynolds ◽  
R. A. Johns

To better understand the role of nitric oxide (NO) in fetal lung development, specifically in the transition of the fetal circulation at birth, we studied the timing of cell-specific expression of NO synthase (NOS) isoforms from formation of lung buds (13th day of gestation) to 7 days postnatal. Expression of NOS was studied using immunohistochemical labeling with antibodies against the three known NOS isoforms and the NADPH diaphorase technique (NADPH-d). Endothelial NOS (eNOS) immunoreactivity was found in the cells of the 14-day fetal lung. As gestation proceeded, the quantity of these immunopositive cells increased, and they coalesced to form an inner (endothelial) layer of pulmonary vessels. This process of angiogenesis marked by eNOS-positive cells was seen from 15 days of gestation to at least 7 days postnatal. A majority of the eNOS immunoreactivity appeared densely in one focal spot in the cytoplasm, indicating that during development the eNOS may be primarily located in a cytoplasmic organelle. Epithelial cells of the rat airway from the same developmental period were positively stained with both brain NOS antibody (bNOS) and NADPH-d at the beginning of 13 days of gestation. Then the intensity of stainings began to decrease and reached the lowest level in the 16-day fetal lung. However, the NOS stainings of the epithelium, especially in small canalicular structures of the airways, began to increase at 18 days of gestation and was dramatically elevated at 20 days of gestation (term is 22 days). Postnatally, NOS in epithelium was decreased in distal airways in conjunction with the formation of alveolar structure. Inducible NOS (iNOS) immunoreactivity was also found in the epithelium of rat lung airways after 16 days of gestation. Unlike the bNOS staining, iNOS immunoreactivity exhibited a pattern of a small dot-like staining within epithelial cytoplasm during gestation and the first day postnatal, then changed to a pattern of diffuse cytoplasmic staining by the 7th postnatal day. This study concludes that 1) expression of three isoforms of NOS is present and regulated during lung development; 2) markedly increased NOS in epithelium near term supports a role for NO in mediating the pulmonary transition from fetal to neonatal life; and 3) eNOS immunohistochemistry serves as an effective marker to follow the process of pulmonary angiogenesis and suggests the concept of in situ formation of endothelial vesicles in developing mesenchyme.


1966 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Bassot

Luminous cells of polynoid worm elytra have been examined by methods of electron microscopy, with special attention focused on the fine structure of photogenic grains. These cells send apical prolongations into the mid-part of the elytra. The plasma membrane is very sinuous, and a special kind of desmosome links two portions of the same membrane. In addition to all the organelles which can be found in nonluminescent epithelial cells of the elytra, numerous photogenic grains are contained in their cytoplasm. These grains are composed of undulating microtubules measuring 200 A in diameter; their disposition in the grain is highly regular, and the grains appear as paracrystals. At the borders of the grains, the walls of the microtubules are often in continuity with those of the endoplasmic reticulum and with the external membrane of the nuclear envelope. Because of this fact, the microtubules of the grains may be considered a cytoplasmic organelle, representing a specialized form of the endoplasmic reticulum. The microtubules permit the repartition, inside and outside their walls, of two different products, one being forty-three times more abundant than the other; thus, the contact surface, in comparison to the volume, is greatly increased. The induction of the luminous reaction by change in the permeability of the microtubule walls, allowing contact between the two substances, is suggested as a working hypothesis. There is an evolution of the grains along the axis of the photocytes. The grains are often surrounded by progressively increasing amounts of glycogen. Their paracrystalline disposition is altered at the apex of the luminous cells.


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