Summary
Cerebral neurones, with their intricately branching processes, have the highest surface/volume ratio of all cells. When cerebral grey matter disintegrates, the uniquely extensive surface of these ramifying cells becomes disorganised. Hydrophobic lipid remnants derived from this vast expanse of lipoprotein membranes may thus account for the highly characteristic PAS-positive granules found in phagocytes present in zones of softening produced by ischaemic necrosis of the cerebral cortex.
This view was supported by further observations on these granules in phagocytes of necrotic cerebral cortex and also by the presence of granules with the same cytochemical properties in similar phagocytes which were found in necrotic cerebellar cortex. In the latter tissue, in which the neurones also possess an exceptionally large surface area owing to the extent of their axo-dendritic arborisations, neuronal disintegration was also followed by the appearance of apparently identical intraphagocytic deposits.
The granular material within phagocytes of necrotic grey matter of both cerebral and cerebellar cortex was intensely coloured by Sudan black B, PAS, and paraldehyde fuchsin after pre-treatment with KMnO4. The colouration by PAS was not inhibited by previous incubation with amylase nor by previous bromination, but was suppressed after acetylation. Although faint brown in colour the granules did not contain ferric iron.
The granular histiocytes found in necrotic grey matter differed from the foamy histiocytes seen in disintegrating white matter during the destruction of myelin.
The granular material in the phagocytes of softened grey matter may be a hydrophobic coacervate formed by disarray of orientated lipoproteins and gangliosides during the disintegration of the extensive surfaces of axo-dendridic arborisations.
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Dixon, K.C., Gresham, G.A. Remnants of necrotic grey matter. Acta Neuropathol 28, 55–68 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00687518
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00687518