Abstract
THIN sheets of nuclear material limited on both sides by the nuclear envelope have been described in several electron microscope studies and referred to as nuclear blebs, pockets, loops or projections. The first term (nuclear sheets) seems to be the most apt to describe all the morphological features of these structures on thin sections1. They have chiefly been recorded in association with interphase nuclei of human and other mammals (see refs. 2–6), but they have also been studied in amphibia7, a bird5 and a cyclostome5. The remarkable feature of the nuclear sheets is their approximately constant thickness, about 300 and 500 Å7. The middle osmiophilic layer2 can be related to the strongly osmiophilic material8 or to the “line C”4 described by others: all these structures have to be referred to the thread-like structural unit or unit thread of heterochromatin forming either envelope-limited sheets or envelope-associated layers6. Structural explanations for the formation of the nuclear sheets have been suggested4,9, but so far their function is unknown, even though it seems likely to be related to the extension of the contact surface between nucleus and cytoplasm.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Davies, H. G., Electron Microscopy 1968 (edit. by Steve Bocciarelli, D.), 2, 175 (Tipografta Poliglotta Vaticana, Rome, 1968).
Mollo, F., and Stramignoni, A., Brit. J. Cancer, 21, 519 (1967).
Mollo, F., and Prato, V., Lancet, i, 924 (1968).
Smith, G. F., and O'Hara, P. T., J. Ultrastruct. Res., 21, 415 (1968).
Davies, H. G., and Small, J. V., Nature, 217, 1122 (1968).
Davies, H. G., J. Cell Sci., 3, 129 (1968).
Davies, H. G., and Tooze, J., J. Cell Sci., 1, 331 (1966).
McDuffie, N. G., Nature, 214, 1341 (1967).
Törö, I., and Oláh, I., Nature, 212, 315 (1966).
Huhn, D., Nature, 216, 1240 (1967).
Bloom, W., and Fawcett, D. W., A Textbook of Histology (Saunders, Philadelphia and London, 1962).
Folliot, R., Z. Zellforsch., 92, 115 (1968).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MOLLO, F., CANESE, M. & STRAMIGNONI, A. Nuclear Sheets in Epithelial and Connective Tissue Cells. Nature 221, 869–870 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/221869a0
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/221869a0
- Springer Nature Limited