Summary
Using the electron microscopy and electron microscopic histochemistry the authors studied the lung alveolar epithelial cell of normal young mice.
Type II cell of the alveolar epithelium has characteristically numerous osmiophilic lamellar bodies. The lamellar boies are formed in the cytoplasmic vesicle, and never originate from the mitochondrion. These bodies have abundant acid phosphatase activity in their limiting membrane therefore it is considered to be lysosomal origin, but the mitochondria have no such enzyme activity.
The body which is newly formed in the cytoplasmic vesicle grows up to the large lamellar body as a result of an accumulation of the fibrous dense substance, migrates to the free margin of the type II cell of alveolar epithelium, and then is discharged into the alveolar lumen as a merocrine type secretion.
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Acknowledgement is given to Professor Dr. Y. Sano and Professor Dr. H. Fujita, Department of Anatomy, and Assistant Professor Dr. S. Fujita, Department of Pathology, for their kind advice and criticism.
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Hatasa, K., Nakamura, T. Electron microscopic observations of lung alveolar epithelial cells of normal young mice, with special reference to formation and secretion of osmiophilic lamellar bodies. Zeitschrift für Zellforschung 68, 266–277 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00342433
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00342433