Quantitative electron microscopic autoradiography and diaminobenzidine cytochemistry provide evidence for an uptake and vesicular transport mechanism for iodine-125-labeled immunoglobulin A from plasma to bile by hepatocytes in vivo. The data confirm the existence of a hepatobiliary pathway for secretion of immunoglobulin A into the intestine and are consistent with a vesicular transport mechanism for biliary proteins within liver parenchymal cells.
Using an iodinated bile-acid analog with hepatic uptake and transport characteristics similar to conventional bile acids, the hepatic lobular gradient concept of Goresky was studied utilizing autoradiography. 125I-labeled cholylglycylhistamine (125I-CGH) was infused into the portal veins of male Sprague-Dawley rats and the livers were fixed for light microscopic autoradiography at 1 and 5 min after infusion. In two animals, sequential samples of bile were collected to assess the transport characteristics of 125I-CGH. By 1 min, virtually all (98%) of the injected 125I-CGH was taken up and retained by hepatocytes after perfusion fixation. Less than 15% of the label was lost during subsequent tissue processing. 125I-CGH appeared in bile within minutes, reaching maximum levels at 7 min. Quantitative autoradiography demonstrated that the first six to nine periportal hepatocytes were, by far, the most active (P less than 0.0005) in sequestering the bile-acid analog than were the remaining cells in the lobule. This study, therefore, provides the first autoradiographic evidence of a hepatic lobular concentration gradient for the uptake of a bile-acid analog.
Spermatogenesis begins in the rabbit at seven to eight weeks of age. During the preceding postnatal period, seminiferous tubules contain round to oval prespermatogonia arranged in pairs at the tubular periphery and elongated Sertoli cells lying perpendicular to the basal lamina. Prespermatogonia are distinguished from fetal gonocytes by their abundant cytoplasm and the presence of intercellular bridges. Preceding the onset of spermatogenesis, prespermatogonia undergo diminution in cell size and cytoplasmic condensation. At the same time there is marked nucleolar enlargement, with elaborate proliferation of the nucleolonema. By the end of the seventh week, characteristic type A and B spermatogonia are present. Spermatocytes are seen at the end of the eighth week. Spermatids appear in the twelfth week, coincident with tubular lumen formation.
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