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Biomedical subjects

S J HOLT

Publications and source records attributed to S J HOLT.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

THE LOCALIZATION BY ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF HELA CELL SURFACE ENZYMES SPLITTING ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE.

Cultures of normally proliferating Hela cells have been examined in thin sections by electron microscopy following glutaraldehyde fixation, staining in Wachstein and Meisel's adenosine triphosphate containing medium, postosmication, and embedding in an epoxy resin. The cells were stained in suspension in order to ensure uniform accessibility to reagents. Discrete localization of the enzyme reaction product (lead phosphate) was found at the plasma membranes of about half the cells, but nowhere else. It appeared in the form of an intensely electron-opaque deposit lying close against the outer surface of the cells and varying in amount from a chain of small particles to a dense band about 30 mmicro in width. This opaque reaction product was present over microvilli when absent elsewhere on a cell, was heaviest where microvilli and processes were profuse, and was minimal or lacking where cell surfaces were smooth. These observations are discussed in relation to both the idea that surface enzyme activity varies with the physiological phase of individual cells in a population, and the problem of how such enzyme activity becomes manifest at a given site on a morphologically changing membrane system.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

ELECTRON MICROSCOPE OBSERVATIONS ON THE SURFACE ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATASE-LIKE ENZYMES OF HELA CELLS INFECTED WITH HERPES VIRUS.

HeLa cells infected with herpes simplex virus have been examined in thin sections by electron microscopy after cytochemical staining for the presence of surface enzymes splitting adenosine triphosphate. As with uninfected HeLa cultures (18), the opaque enzyme reaction product was localized at the plasma membranes of about half the cells, tending to be present where there were microvilli and absent on smooth surfaces. Where mature extracellular herpes particles were found in association with cell membranes showing the enzyme activity, they were invariably likewise stained, and conversely, those mature particles which lay close against cells without reaction product at the surface were themselves free of it. Particles found budding into cytoplasmic vacuoles were also always without opaque deposit since this was never seen at vacuolar membranes, even in cells having the activity at the surface. The enzyme reaction product thus provided a marker indicating the manner in which the particles escape from cells and mature by budding out through cellular membranes, carrying, in the process, a portion of the latter on to themselves to form the outer viral limiting membrane. In some instances, virus particles were observed with more opaque material covering them than was present at the cell membrane with which they were associated. This finding has been taken as evidence for a physiological waxing and waning of surface enzyme activity of adenosine triphosphatase type. The fine structure of the mature extracellular virus as prepared here, using glutaraldehyde fixation, is also recorded. The observations and interpretations are discussed in full.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

Studies on formalin fixation for electron microscopy and cytochemical staining purposes.

A study has been made of the preservation of fine structure, phospholipids, and the activity of acid phosphatase and esterase in rat liver fixed in various solutions containing 4 per cent formaldehyde. Examination of methacrylate-embedded preparations shows that calcium-containing fixatives result in poor preservation of fine structure, whereas veronal-treated or phosphate-buffered formalin gives excellent results if the tonicity of the solutions is suitably adjusted by addition of sucrose. Formol-phosphate, to which Versene has been added, causes deterioration of cellular morphology. Phospholipids are retained almost quantitatively in tissue fixed in formol-calcium, and in phosphate-, collidine-, or triethanolamine-buffered formalin. About 50 per cent of the activity of acid phosphatase and esterase are preserved after 24 hours exposure to these fixatives at 0-2 degrees C, and the distributions of the enzymes and of phospholipids, as judged by cytochemical staining results, are not altered by any of these formalin solutions. Consideration of the morphological and biochemical integrity of the fixed tissue suggests that 4 per cent formaldehyde, buffered at pH 7.2 with 0.067 M phosphate, and containing 7.5 per cent sucrose, is the most suitable of the fixatives for combined cytochemical staining and electron microscopical studies.

Animals↗

The localization of acid phosphatase in rat liver cells as revealed by combined cytochemical staining and electron microscopy.

Discrete localization of stain in pericanalicular granules was found in 10 micro frozen sections of formol-phosphate-sucrose-fixed liver stained by the Gomori acid phosphatase technique and examined in the light microscope. The staining patterns, before and after treatment with Triton X-100 and lecithinase, were identical with those previously reported for formol-calcium-fixed material treated in the same way, and it can be assumed that the stained granules are identical with "lysosomes." Examination in the light microscope of the staining patterns and lead penetration in fixed blocks and slices of various dimensions showed nuclear staining and other artefacts to be present, produced by the different rates of penetration of the various components of the staining medium into the tissue. A uniform pericanalicular staining pattern could be obtained, however, with slices not more than 50 micro thick, into which the staining medium could penetrate rapidly from both faces. The staining pattern produced in 50 micro slices was the same both at pH 5.0 and pH 6.2, and was not altered by subsequent embedding of the stained material in butyl methacrylate. Electron microscopy showed the fine structure of fixed 50 micro frozen slices to be well preserved, but it deteriorated badly when they were incubated in the normal Gomori medium at pH 5.0 before postfixing in osmium tetroxide. After incubation in the Gomori medium at pH 6.2, the detailed morphology was substantially maintained. In both cases lead phosphate, the reaction product, was found in the pericanalicular regions of the cell, but only in the vacuolated dense bodies and never in the microbodies. Not every vacuolated dense body contained lead, and stained and unstained bodies were sometimes seen adjacent to each other. This heterogeneous distribution of stain within a morphologically homogeneous group of particles is consistent with de Duve's suggestion (9) that there is a heterogeneous distribution of enzymes within the lysosome population. It is concluded from these investigations that the vacuolated dense bodies seen in the electron microscope are the morphological counterparts of the "lysosomes" defined biochemically by de Duve.

Acid Phosphatase↗