MORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE CATECHOLAMINIC SYNTHESIS IN THE ADRENAL MEDULLA

1962 ◽  
pp. YY-9
Author(s):  
F. Clementi ◽  
G.P. Zocche
Endocrinology ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 140 (12) ◽  
pp. 5991-5994 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. López ◽  
R. Señaris ◽  
R. Gallego ◽  
T. García-Caballero ◽  
F. Lago ◽  
...  

Abstract Two recently discovered hypothalamic peptides, orexin-A and orexin-B, play a role as mediators in the central mechanisms that regulate feeding behavior and sleep control. These peptides bind and activate two orexin receptors that belong to the G-protein coupled receptor superfamily. Morphological studies have detected mRNA expression of orexin receptors exclusively in the rat central nervous system. In this paper we demonstrate a strong level of expression of orexin receptor 1 and 2 in the adrenal medulla of the rat by RT-PCR immunohistochemistry. The results of the present study provide the first evidence showing that the adrenal medulla expresses orexin receptors, and thus appears to be a target tissue for orexins. This could open a new loop in which the central and autonomous nervous system may be involved in body weight homeostasis and sleep control.


Author(s):  
R. J. Barrnett ◽  
J. A. Higgins

The main products of intestinal hydrolysis of dietary triglycerides are free fatty acids and monoglycerides. These form micelles from which the lipids are absorbed across the mucosal cell brush border. Biochemical studies have indicated that intestinal mucosal cells possess a triglyceride synthesising system, which uses monoglyceride directly as an acylacceptor as well as the system found in other tissues in which alphaglycerophosphate is the acylacceptor. The former pathway is used preferentially for the resynthesis of triglyceride from absorbed lipid, while the latter is used mainly for phospholipid synthesis. Both lipids are incorporated into chylomicrons. Morphological studies have shown that during fat absorption there is an initial appearance of fat droplets within the cisternae of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum and that these subsequently accumulate in the golgi elements from which they are released at the lateral borders of the cell as chylomicrons.We have recently developed several methods for the fine structural localization of acyltransferases dependent on the precipitation, in an electron dense form, of CoA released during the transfer of the acyl group to an acceptor, and have now applied these methods to a study of the fine structural localization of the enzymes involved in chylomicron lipid biosynthesis. These methods are based on the reduction of ferricyanide ions by the free SH group of CoA.


Author(s):  
J. D. Muzzy ◽  
R. D. Hester ◽  
J. L. Hubbard

Polyethylene is one of the most important plastics produced today because of its good physical properties, ease of fabrication and low cost. Studies to improve the properties of polyethylene are leading to an understanding of its crystalline morphology. Polyethylene crystallized by evaporation from dilute solutions consists of thin crystals called lamellae. The polyethylene molecules are parallel to the thickness of the lamellae and are folded since the thickness of the lamellae is much less than the molecular length. This lamellar texture persists in less perfect form in polyethylene crystallized from the melt.Morphological studies of melt crystallized polyethylene have been limited due to the difficulty of isolating the microstructure from the bulk specimen without destroying or deforming it.


Author(s):  
Fadhil Al-Lami ◽  
R.G. Murray

Although the fine structure of the carotid body has been described in several recent reports, uncertainties remain, and the morphological effects of anoxia on the carotid body cells of the cat have never been reported. We have, therefore, studied the fine structure of the carotid body both in normal and severely anoxic cats, and to test the specificity of the effects, have compared them with the effects on adrenal medulla, kidney, and liver of the same animals. Carotid bodies of 50 normal and 15 severely anoxic cats (9% oxygen in nitrogen) were studied. Glutaraldehyde followed by OsO4 fixations, Epon 812 embedding, and uranyl acetate and lead citrate staining, were the technics employed.We have called the two types of glomus cells enclosed and enclosing cells. They correspond to those previously designated as chemoreceptor and sustentacular cells respectively (1). The enclosed cells forming the vast majority, are irregular in shape with many processes and occasional peripheral densities (Fig. 1).


Author(s):  
S. Fujinaga ◽  
K. Maruyama ◽  
C.W. Williams ◽  
K. Sekhri ◽  
L. Dmochowski

Yumoto and Dmochowski (Cancer Res.27, 2098 (1967)) reported the presence of mature and immature type C leukemia virus particles in leukemic organs and tissues such as lymph nodes, spleen, thymus, liver, and kidneys of SJL/J strain mice with Hodgki's-like disease or reticulum cell neoplasm (type B). In an attempt to ascertain the possibility that this neoplasia may be of viral origin, experiments with induction and transmission of this neoplasm were carried out using cell-free extracts of leukemic organs from an SJL/J strain mouse with spontaneous disease.It has been possible to induce the disease in low-leukemia BALB/c and C3HZB strain mice and serially transfer the neoplasia by cell-free extracts of leukemic organs of these mice. Histological examination revealed the neoplasia to be of either reticulum cell-type A or type B. Serial transfer is now in its fifth passage. In addition leukemic spleen from another SJL/J strain mouse with spontaneous reticulum cell neoplasm (type A) was set up in tissue culture and is now in its 141st serial passage in vitro. Preliminary results indicate that cell-free material of 39th tissue culture passage can reproduce neoplasia in BALB/c mice.


Author(s):  
Richard J. Spontak ◽  
Steven D. Smith ◽  
Arman Ashraf

Block copolymers are composed of sequences of dissimilar chemical moieties covalently bonded together. If the block lengths of each component are sufficiently long and the blocks are thermodynamically incompatible, these materials are capable of undergoing microphase separation, a weak first-order phase transition which results in the formation of an ordered microstructural network. Most efforts designed to elucidate the phase and configurational behavior in these copolymers have focused on the simple AB and ABA designs. Few studies have thus far targeted the perfectly-alternating multiblock (AB)n architecture. In this work, two series of neat (AB)n copolymers have been synthesized from styrene and isoprene monomers at a composition of 50 wt% polystyrene (PS). In Set I, the total molecular weight is held constant while the number of AB block pairs (n) is increased from one to four (which results in shorter blocks). Set II consists of materials in which the block lengths are held constant and n is varied again from one to four (which results in longer chains). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been employed here to investigate the morphologies and phase behavior of these materials and their blends.


Author(s):  
E.Y. Chi ◽  
M.L. Su ◽  
Y.T. Tien ◽  
W.R. Henderson

Recent attention has been directed to the interaction of the nerve and immune systems. The neuropeptide substance P, a tachykinnin which is a neurotransmitter in the central and peripheral nervous systems produces tissue swelling, augemntation of intersitial fibrin deposition and leukocyte infiltration after intracutaneous injection. There is a direct correlation reported between the extent of mast cell degranulation at the sites of injection and the tissue swelling or granulocyte infiltration. It has previously been demonstrated that antidromic electrical stimulation of sensory nerves induces degranulation of cutaneous mast cells, cutaneous vasodilation and augmented vascular permeability. Morphological studies have documented a close anatiomical association between mast cells and nonmyelinated nerves, that contain substance P and other neuropeptides. However, the presence of mast cells within nerve fasicles has not been previously examined ultrastructurally. In this study, we examined ultrastructurally the distribution of mast cells in the nerve fiber bundles located in the muscular connective tissue of rat tongues (n=20).


Author(s):  
Gemma A.J. Kuijpers ◽  
Harvey B. Pollard

Exocytotic fusion of granules in the adrenal medulla chromaffin cell is triggered by a rise in the concentration of cytosolic Ca2+ upon cell activation. The protein synexin, annexin VII, was originally found in the adrenal medulla and has been shown to cause aggregation and to support fusion of chromaffin granules in a Ca2+-dependent manner. We have previously suggested that synexin may there fore play a role in the exocytotic fusion process. In order to obtain more structural information on synexin, we performed immuno-electron microscopy on frozen ultrathin sections of both isolated chromaffin granules and chromaffin cells.Chromaffin granules were isolated from bovine adrenal medulla, and synexin was isolated from bovine lung. Granules were incubated in the presence or absence of synexin (24 μg per mg granule protein) and Ca2+ (1 mM), which induces maximal granule aggregation, in 0.3M sucrose-40m MMES buffer(pH 6.0). Granules were pelleted, washed twice in buffer without synexin and fixed with 2% glutaraldehyde- 2% para formaldehyde in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (GA/PFA) for 30 min. Chromaffin cells were isolated and cultured for 3-5 days, and washed and incubated in Krebs solution with or without 20 uM nicotine. Cells were fixed 90 sec after on set of stimulation with GA/PFA for 30 min. Fixed granule or cell pellets were washed, infiltrated with 2.3 M sucrose in PBS, mounted and frozen in liquid N2.


Author(s):  
R. L. Reeder ◽  
S. H. Rogers ◽  
W. A. Shannon

Numerous morphological studies have dealt with the spermatheca of pulmonate gastropods. This globular organ, which is attached to the female portion of the reproductive tract by a long duct in these monoecious animals, has had various functions ascribed to it. Recent histochemical demonstrations of deoxyribonuclease, ribonuclease, protease, and acid phosphatase have provided, however, conclusive evidence that it is a digestive organ for the degradation of superfluous sperm and genital tract secretions. Only limited information concerning the spermatheca is available at the ultrastructural level, a fact providing the stimulus for the present study of this organ in Sonorella santaritana, a desert mountain snail from Arizona.


Author(s):  
Roberto González-De Zayas ◽  
Liosban Lantigua Ponce de León ◽  
Liezel Guerra Rodríguez ◽  
Felipe Matos Pupo ◽  
Leslie Hernández-Fernández

The Cenote Jennifer is an important and unique aquatic sinkhole in Cayo Coco (Jardines del Rey Tourist Destination) that has brackish to saline water. Two samplings were made in 1998 and 2009, and 4 metabolism community experiments in 2009. Some limnological parameters were measured in both samplings (temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen major ions, hydrogen sulfide, nutrients and others). Community metabolism was measured through incubated oxygen concentration in clear and dark oxygen bottles. Results showed that the sinkhole limnology depends on rainfall and light incidence year, with some stratification episodes, due to halocline or oxycline presence, rather than thermocline. The sinkhole water was oligotrophic (total nitrogen of 41.5 ± 22.2 μmol l−1 and total phosphorus of 0.3 ± 0.2 μmol l−1) and with low productivity (gross primary productivity of 63.0 mg C m−2 d−1). Anoxia and hypoxia were present at the bottom with higher levels of hydrogen sulfide, lower pH and restricted influence of the adjacent sea (2 km away). To protect the Cenote Jennifer, tourist exploitation should be avoided and more resources to ecological and morphological studies should be allocated, and eventually use this aquatic system only for specialized diving. For conservation purposes, illegal garbage disposal in the surrounding forest should end.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document