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Studies of platelets with heavy metal impregnation techniques

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Summary

Vaious methods of heavy metal impregnations were performed on human platelets. The optimal technique consisted of glutaraldehyde fixation, incubation in warm uranyl acetate at a pH of 3.5, followed by a double solution of lead and copper, and finally overnight immersion in cold osmium tetroxide. Semi-thin sections, viewed at 90 kV, revealed three types of platelets: (1) ‘reticular’ cells, with a prominent tubular network and very dark granules in a pale cytoplasm; (2) ‘dark’ cells, with an electron-dense cytoplasm; and (3) ‘pale’ cells, with microvesicles and non-staining granules. Pre-treatments with EGTA, aspirin and various platelet activators altered the appearances and proportions of the three cell types.

A cell-partitioning two-phase polymer system showed that the sub-grouping is related to surface membrane properties, the cells retained in the top phase being exclusively type 2 ‘dark’ cells.

The changes in cell type distribution produced by activation show that metal impregnation may be a useful method for studying structure-function correlations in platelets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Orthopaedics, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, POB 1172, Jerusalem, Israel

    R. Yarom, R. More, Y. Havivi, G. Lijovetzky & S. Meyer

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  1. R. Yarom
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  2. R. More
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  3. Y. Havivi
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  4. G. Lijovetzky
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  5. S. Meyer
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Yarom, R., More, R., Havivi, Y. et al. Studies of platelets with heavy metal impregnation techniques. Histochem J 14, 73–86 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01041131

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01041131

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