Περίληψη:
Protein bodies, the characteristic spherical organelles present in human
monoamine neurons, have been shown in previous electron microscope
studies to originate as dense bodies in mitochondria. This study was
designed to investigate the presence of catecholamine reaction products
in the dense bodies of locus coeruleus neurons, in frozen fresh
post-mortem brain tissue with the use of potassium permanganate (KMnO4)
fixation. This fixation procedure forms a dense KMnO4/catecholamine
reaction product, visible in the electron microscope, in the large
dense-core vesicles of experimental animals. Our results demonstrate the
localization of KMnO4 dense product in the cores of double
membrane-bound spherical organelles, as well as in spherical structures
in the matrix of typical mitochondria. No typical large dense-core
vesicles were observed in these catecholamine neurons of the tissues
studied. Our findings are consistent with the notion that altered
mitochondria may contribute to the formation of a new type of large
dense-core vesicle in the locus coeruleus neurons of man, which is
probably an evolutionary adaptation of amine-storing organelles.
Συγγραφείς:
Issidorides, MR
Kriho, V
Pappas, GD
