ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC OBSERVATION ON THE CYTOLOGIC SMEARS

Interpretation of the fine structures of cytologic smears is needed for further understanding of morphological and physiological properties of malignant cells in the smears. However, application of electron microscopic study usually has been limited to histologic tissues affected with diseases, taken by either biopsy or autopsy materials. Several methods have been devised for sampling the cultured or smeared cells for electron microscopy but it is inconvenient to apply these methods for routine examination of cytologic smears because of requiring skillful technique and expensive instruments. The present method makes it easy to obtain electron microscopic samples from the cytologic smears and to observe the same cells in the smears with both light and electron microscopes. The results of application of this technique are shown in the electron micrographs of vaginal and cervical smears of the carcinoma of portio cervix or chronic endocervicitis. There are not any distinctive differences in the details of the remaining ultrastructures, such as endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, free ribosomes, tonofibrils, cytoplasmic membrane, nuclear chromatin granules, desmosomes, etc., as compared with those of usual block tissues

ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDY OF THE EARLY CHANGES IN HEART VALVE OF CHICKENS INJECTED WITH STREPTOCOCCUS FAECALIS

This paper describes electron microscopic observations on early changes in the endocardium, especially of the endothelial cells, and the basement membrane by means of the activity of virus particles found incidentally in the cardiac valve of apparently normal chickens injected with Streptococcus faecalis, during a study on experimental bacterial endocarditis. Aggregation of virus particles was found in the focal edema around the basement membrane of the subendothelial region. Various alterations in the basement membrane were found from the subendothelial focal edema, and Tanged from fibrillation, lamellation, fragmentation, segmentation, and disruption to disappearance. Most of them found in the auricular surface of the mitral valve were more intense than in the ventricular surface. Only the subendothelial fibrillogenesis in relation to the basement membrane was more marked in the ventricular surface. The degenerative changes of the endothelial cells such as shrinkage, collapse, apparent necrosis, and desquamation were seen more frequently in the auricular surface. These endothelial cellular changes appeared to depend on the reaction of the basement membrane for the subendothelial focal ellema considered to be the initial lesion in the vegetative endocarditis

ULTRASTRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE BACTERIAL VEGETATIVE ENDOCARDITIS

Electron microscopic study of the endothelium of the bacterial valvular endocarditis, induced by the single intravenous inoculation of Streptococcus faecalis in the chicken, revealed cellular changes ranging from the relatively early changes consisting of marked increase of pinocytotic vesicles, much more population of free ribosomes, cystic dilatation, shrinkage and collapse of endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, predominant lysosomes, phagocytosis, edematous cytoplasm, pseudopodia multiplication and microvilli deformation of cytoplasmic processes, alienation of the intercellular junctions, and estrangement of basement membrane from the endothelial cells, to the final high alterations consisting of cytoplasn1ic lysis, desquamation, and vegetative formation on the endothelial cells of the mitral valve. These various lesions occurred at 2, 4, 6, 12, and 24 hr, and 2, 5, 7, and 10 days after bacterial inoculation. The changes varied in different locations on the valve. Most of them were found frequently on the auricular surface at the line of closure. The bacterial vegetation developed on the valves of 7 of the 8 chickens from 7 to 10 days after inoculation. The present study has suggested that both bacteria-active and bacteria-passive endothelial cells are present in the valvular endocardium by the selective sensitivity to bacterial injury

ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC OBSERVATION ON THE PARAFFIN OR CELLOIDIN-PARAFFIN EMBEDDED SECTIONS FROM SURGICAL AND AUTOPSY MATERIALS

It is very difficult to utilize a specific electron microscopic method for all cases in the routine examination of surgical and autopsy materials. The utilization of paraffin embedded material for electron microscopy has already been described by Zeitoun and Lehy but finer cytological details are difficult to distinguish by their method. The present method is possible to preserve the ultrastructure well by a more simple procedures, in which the paraffin or celloidin-paraffin embedded tissue is mounted on an epoxy resin slide instead of glass slide, embedded in epoxy resin through deparaffinization, dehydration, staining, post-fixation with osmium tetroxide, and sampling of the area to be chosen for electron microscopy is made under a light microscope. The precise selected region can be easily ultrathin sectioned and electron micrographs taken. Through this procedure, the virus particles with a nucleoid core are observed in the cytomegalic inclusion bodies of salivary gland and the tumor cells of giant cell tumor of tendon sheath can be divided into two main types; one richly endowed with rough endoplasmic reticulum and the other containing many mitochondria. This method is useful for obtaining ultrastructural informations for the examination of difficult diagnostic cases in the surgical and autopsy pathology