Congenital varicella.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to I Alexander.
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The epithelial surfaces in the trachea and principal bronchi of healthy rats were examined by scanning electron microscopy. A system of four cell types, ciliated, microvillous, brush, and goblet cells, in this order of frequency, were found and intermediate type cells were not seen. An extensive area of the surface examined was covered by densely ciliated epithelium. The presence of other cell types beneath the cilia was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Areas up to 1 mm in diameter and randomly distributed were observed where microvillous cells predominated and only occasional ciliated cells were found. Most ciliated cells in these areas were adjacent to glandular openings or goblet cells. The larger microvilli of the brush cells were arranged in a coronal configuration elucidated by the scanning electron microscope. Preparatory techniques recently introduced for the examination of soft tissue in the scanning electron microscope facilitated the confirmation of cell types present and the microarchitecture of the epithelial surface.
The extraction of mRNA from cartilage samples is complicated by the presence of proteoglycans and the low cellular density of the tissue. We required a method that would enable mRNA to be extracted from small biopsy-sized samples of cartilage. The method had to produce consistent results and sufficient RNA for Northern and PCR analysis. Methods of total RNA extraction, previously shown to be effective for cartilage, were compared with a new technique in which an oligo (dT) conjugated to biotin hybridises to the mRNA. The hybrids are captured with covalently coupled streptavidin paramagnetic particles. Samples of growth plate cartilage, including those specifically from the upper (proliferative and transitional) and lower (fully hypertrophic) zones, were collected and some were frozen at -70 degrees C. Samples for extraction by the paramagnetic method weighed approximately 80 mg and approximately 12 micrograms of mRNA was extracted from fresh tissue samples. The yield from similar frozen samples of the same weight was about a seventh of that from the fresh tissues. 5 micrograms of the mRNA from each sample was run on a gel, and a Northern blot was prepared and probed with a [32P]-labelled antisense RNA probe to type II collagen cDNA. A distinct band of type II collagen mRNA was detected (5.3 Kb) in the samples from the upper (proliferative and transitional) zone. The traditional methods of extracting RNA from cartilage required far greater quantities of tissue and the RNA produced was frequently degraded. The results obtained using the paramagnetic bead method precluded further trials with modification of the traditional methods of mRNA extraction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)