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Ultrastructural aspects of the choroid plexus epithelium as revealed by the rapid-freezing and deep-etching techniques

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Summary

By use of rapid freezing with a nitrogen-cooled propane jet, differentiating epithelial cells of the choroid plexus can be studied without chemical and embedding procedures. The cytological features of the developing choroidal cells were investigated in chick embryos and three-week-old-chicks. After cryofixation, the material was fractured, deep-etched and rotary shadowed. Fractures of the Golgi apparatus reveal the particulate structure of the saccule membranes and show that the intracisternal surfaces are covered by particles which protrude into the intracisternal space. The inner membranes of mitochondrial cristae are characteristically covered by stalked particles; the intracristal space is collapsed. The endoplasmic reticulum possesses globular particles that occupy the width of the membrane, as well as granules and filament-like structures in its cisternae. The adherent ribosomes demonstrated by deep-etching consist of aggregated subunits. New aspects of the structure of the nuclear envelope and the pore complex are described. The circumference of the pore complex is formed by intramembranous aggregated particles in an octagonal symmetrical arrangement. The structure of the cilia and the ciliary necklace can be studied in their three-dimensional aspects, e.g., the structure of doublets and their relation to the cytomembrane. The junctional complexes of choroid epithelial cells differentiated both nexus and zonula occludens simultaneously. Tight junctions consist of isolated arrays of particles, which do not form fibrils in cryofixed material. Gap junctions are not always hexagonally arranged, are devoid of a crystalline form and occasionally show the presence of pits in the protoplasmic face.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Anatomie, Arbeitsgruppe für Experimentelle Cytologie, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

    Karl Meller

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  1. Karl Meller
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This work was supported by a grant from the Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (II B5-FA 7470). The author thanks E. Descher, R. Hardt and K. Donberg for their excellent assistance and C. Bloch for her great help in preparing this manuscript.

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Meller, K. Ultrastructural aspects of the choroid plexus epithelium as revealed by the rapid-freezing and deep-etching techniques. Cell Tissue Res. 239, 189–201 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00214919

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