scholarly journals Silver amplification of mercury sulfide and selenide: a histochemical method for light and electron microscopic localization of mercury in tissue.

1985 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Danscher ◽  
B Møller-Madsen

A method for light and electron microscopic demonstration of mercury sulfides and mercury selenides in mammalian tissue is presented. Silver ions adhering to the surface of submicroscopic traces of mercury sulfides or selenides in the tissue are reduced to metallic silver by hydroquinone. Physical development thereupon renders deposits of mercury sulfides or mercury selenide visible as spheres of solid silver. Examples of localization of mercury in the central nervous system and various organs from animals exposed to mercury chloride or methyl mercury chloride with or without additional sodium selenide treatment are presented. Selenium treatment results in a considerable increase in the amount of mercury that can be made visible by silver amplification. After mercury chloride treatment, most of the mercury is localized in lysosomes and is only rarely seen in secretory granules. After simultaneous selenium treatment, mercury is also found in nuclei of proximal tubule cells in the kidney and in macrophages. The "sulfide-osmium" method for ultrastructural localization of mercury suggested by Silberberg, Lawrence, and Leider (Arch Environ Health 19:7, 1969) and the light microscopic method using a photographic emulsion suggested by Umeda, Saito, and Saito (Jpn J Exp Med 39:17, 1969) have been experimentally analyzed and commented on.

1992 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
M T Castells ◽  
J Ballesta ◽  
J F Madrid ◽  
J A Martínez-Menárguez ◽  
M Avilés

We investigated the glycoconjugates of the human bronchial glands at light and electron microscopic level by means of lectin histochemistry in combination with neuraminidase digestion and beta-elimination reaction. Both direct and indirect techniques using lectin-peroxidase, lectin-gold, and glycoprotein-gold complexes were applied. The binding pattern of the six lectins (ConA, HPA, DSA, WGA, LEA, and PNA) used in the present study suggests that mucous and serous cells of human bronchial glands contain both N- and O-glycosylated proteins in the secretory granules. Asparagine-linked oligosaccharides containing Gal(beta-1,4) GlcNAc and Man residues were abundant in serous cells. The demonstration of both the terminal Neu 5Ac (alpha-2,3, or 6) Gal (beta-1,4) GlcNAc sequence in the N-linked oligosaccharides of mucous cells and the terminal disaccharide Gal (beta-1,4) GlcNAc in the N-linked oligosaccharide chains of serous cells suggests the existence of complex type sugar chains N-glycosidically linked to the peptide region of the glycoproteins. The binding pattern of the DSA and the neuraminidase-DSA sequence provides evidence for the existence of sialyltransferase activity in the forming mucous granules of mucous bronchial cells.


Author(s):  
William J. Dougherty

The regulation of secretion in exocrine and endocrine cells has long been of interest. Electron microscopic and other studies have demonstrated that secretory proteins synthesized on ribosomes are transported by the rough ER to the Golgi complex where they are concentrated into secretory granules. During active secretion, secretory granules fuse with the cell membrane, liberating and discharging their contents into the perivascular spaces. When secretory activity is suppressed in anterior pituitary cells, undischarged secretory granules may be degraded by lysosomes. In the parathyroid gland, evidence indicates that the level of blood Ca ions regulates both the production and release of parathormone. Thus, when serum Ca is low, synthesis and release of parathormone are both stimulated; when serum Ca is elevated, these processes are inhibited.


Author(s):  
George E. Childs ◽  
Joseph H. Miller

Biochemical and differential centrifugation studies have demonstrated that the oxidative enzymes of Acanthamoeba sp. are localized in mitochondria and peroxisomes (microbodies). Although hartmanellid amoebae have been the subject of several electron microscopic studies, peroxisomes have not been described from these organisms or other protozoa. Cytochemical tests employing diaminobenzidine-tetra HCl (DAB) and hydrogen peroxide were used for the ultrastructural localization of peroxidases of trophozoites of Hartmanella sp. (A-l, Culbertson), a pathogenic strain grown in axenic cultures of trypticase soy broth.


Author(s):  
Veronika Burmeister ◽  
N. Ludvig ◽  
P.C. Jobe

Electron microscopic immunocytochemistry provides an important tool to determine the ultrastructural distribution of various molecules in both normal and pathologic tissues. However, the specific immunostaining may be obscured by artifactual immunoreaction product, misleading the investigator. Previous observations show that shortening the incubation period with the primary antibody from the generally used 12-24 hours to 1 hour substantially reduces the artifactual immunostaining. We now extend this finding by the demonstration of artifact-free ultrastructural localization of the Ca2/calmodulindependent cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (CaM-dependent PDE) immunoreactivity in brain.Anesthetized rats were perfused transcardially with phosphate-buffered saline followed by a fixative containing paraformaldehyde (4%) and glutaraldehyde (0.25%) in PBS. The brains were removed, and 40μm sections were cut with a vibratome. The sections were processed for immunocytochemistry as described by Ludvig et al. Both non-immune rabbit serum and specific CaM-dependent PDE antibodies were used. In both experiments incubations were at one hour and overnight. The immunostained sections were processed for electron microscopic examination.


Author(s):  
T.W. Jeng ◽  
W. Chiu

With the advances in preparing biological materials in a thin and highly ordered form, and in maintaining them hydrated under vacuum, electron crystallography has become an important tool for biological structure investigation at high resolution (1,2). However, the electron radiation damage would limit the capability of recording reflections with low intensities in an electron diffraction pattern. It has been demonstrated that the use of a low temperature stage can reduce the radiation damage effect and that one can expose the specimen with a higher dose in order to increase the signal contrast (3). A further improvement can be made by selecting a proper photographic emulsion. The primary factors in evaluating the suitability of photographic emulsion for recording low dose diffraction patterns are speed, fog level, electron response at low electron exposure, linearity, and usable range of exposure. We have compared these factors with three photographic emulsions including Kodak electron microscopic plate (EMP), Industrex AA x-ray film (AA x-ray) and Kodak nuclear track film (NTB3).


1997 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shigeyasu Tanaka ◽  
Takao Yora ◽  
Kazuhisa Nakayama ◽  
Kinji Inoue ◽  
Kazumasa Kurosumi

Using antibodies specific for pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), amidated joining peptide (JP), and the prohormone convertase PC1, we showed immunocytochemically that PC1 in a corticotrophic tumor cell line, AtT-20, was co-localized either with POMC or with amidated JP in secretory granules, and also confirmed that POMC was cleaved mainly in secretory granules. Analysis using DAMP (3- [2,4-dinitroanilino]-3'-amino- N-methyldipropylamine) as the pH probe suggested a correlation between POMC processing and acidic pH in the secretory granules. Bafilomycin A1, a specific inhibitor of vacuolar-type H+-AT-Pase, completely inhibited POMC processing and caused constitutive secretion of the unprocessed precursor. By contrast, chloroquine, a weak base that is known to neutralize acidic organelles, was unable to inhibit POMC processing. Electron microscopic analysis revealed that, in AtT-20 cells treated with bafilomycin A1, the trans-Golgi cisternae were dilated and few secretory granules were present in the cytoplasm. These observations suggest that acidic pH provides a favorable environment for proteolytic processing of POMC by PC1 but is not required, and that integrity of the trans-Golgi network and sorting of POMC into secretory granules are important for POMC processing. (J Histochem Cytochem 45:425–436, 1997)


1996 ◽  
Vol 109 (10) ◽  
pp. 2453-2460 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Fujimoto ◽  
M. Umeda ◽  
T. Fujimoto

We propose the use of membrane splitting by freeze-fracture for differential phospholipid analysis of protoplasmic and exoplasmic membrane leaflets (halves). Unfixed cells or tissues are quick-frozen, freeze-fractured, and platinum-carbon (Pt/C) shadowed. The Pt/C replicas are then treated with 2.5% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to solubilize unfractured membranes and to release cytoplasm or contents. While the detergent dissolves unfractured membranes, it would not extract lipids from split membranes, as their apolar domains are stabilized by their Pt/C replicas. After washing, the Pt/C replicas, along with attached protoplasmic and exoplasmic membrane halves, are processed for immunocytochemical labeling of phospholipids with antibody, followed by electron microscopic observation. Here, we present the application of the SDS-digested freeze-fracture replica labeling (SDS-FRL) technique to the transmembrane distribution of a major membrane phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine (PC), in various cell and intracellular membranes. Immunogold labeling revealed that PC is exclusively localized on the exoplasmic membrane halves of the plasma membranes, and the intracellular membranes of various organelles, e.g. nuclei, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, secretory granules, and disc membranes of photoreceptor cells. One exception to this general scheme was the plasma membrane forming the myelin sheath of neurons and the Ca(2+)-treated erythrocyte membranes. In these cell membranes, roughly equal amounts of immunogold particles for PC were seen on each outer and inner membrane half, implying a symmetrical transmembrane distribution of PC. Initial screening suggests that the SDS-FRL technique allows in situ analysis of the transmembrane distribution of membrane lipids, and at the same time opens up the possibility of labeling membranes such as intracellular membranes not normally accessible to cytochemical labels without the distortion potentially associated with membrane isolation procedures.


1993 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 1199-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Hozak ◽  
C. Schofer ◽  
J. Sylvester ◽  
F. Wachtler

The nature and localization of DNA contained in the fibrillar centres and the dense fibrillar component (the fibrillar complex) in the nucleoli, was studied in human LEP cells, Sertoli cells, spermatogonia A and in mitotic chromosomes of stimulated lymphocytes. A novel procedure for isolating the intact fibrillar complex from LEP cells was used; the complex contains DNA that hybridizes to secondary constrictions of mitotic chromosomes and to 28 S rDNA sequences, on Southern blots. Electron microscopic DNA-DNA in situ hybridization was performed, with (a) a probe prepared from DNA extracted from the fibrillar complex of LEP cells, (b) a probe for human total genomic DNA, and (c) a probe for the transcribed part of human rDNA. On the basis of the results obtained we conclude that the ribosomal RNA genes in human Sertoli cells and spermatogonia A are predominantly associated with the dense fibrillar component, including the border region between fibrillar centres and the dense fibrillar component. The ribosomal RNA genes are the main, if not exclusive, DNA type present in the fibrillar complex in the studied cell types.


1972 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 590-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. C. MORIARTY ◽  
N. S. HALMI

The technique involving use of unlabeled antibody and the peroxidase-antiperoxidase complex was used to identify the adrenocorticotropin (ACTH)-secreting cell in the anterior pituitary lobe of the rat and to localize ACTH in it electron microscopically in ultrathin sections. The ACTH cell is star-shaped, with processes extending around other cells, and contains secretory granules of a maximal diameter of 300 mµ arranged peripherally along the plasma membrane. Stain was observed on secretory granules, around them, in the Golgi complex and in rough endoplasmic reticulum. One day after adrenalectomy, the ACTH cell is degranulated and the staining intensity of its remaining granules and cytoplasm is decreased, suggesting release of ACTH stores. If cortisol is given 6 hr after adrenalectomy, 18 hr later the ACTH cells are well granulated and the granules stain more intensely than normal. In addition, staining around the granules and throughout the cytoplasm is more intense, suggesting that an early effect of cortisol is to block release of ACTH. Twenty-one days after adrenalectomy, the ACTH cells are greatly increased in numbers and have complex, tortuous processes filled with intensely stained secretory granules.


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