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Transcellular openings through frog microvascular endothelium
Author(s) -
Neal CR,
Michel CC
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
experimental physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1469-445X
pISSN - 0958-0670
DOI - 10.1113/expphysiol.1997.sp004037
Subject(s) - transcellular , osmium tetroxide , endothelium , glutaraldehyde , fixative , paracellular transport , fixation (population genetics) , biophysics , anatomy , chemistry , biology , biochemistry , endocrinology , permeability (electromagnetism) , electron microscope , chromatography , physics , membrane , cytoplasm , gene , optics
Reconstructions from serial ultrathin sections of microvascular endothelium suggest that gaps, which are induced by a range of stimuli, may pass through endothelial cells as well as between them. To address the possibility that the transcellular gaps are not artefacts of aldehyde fixation, we have reconstructed fourteen gaps, induced by the ionophore A23187, in frog mesenteric microvessels where the primary fixative was osmium tetroxide. All fourteen gaps were transcellular. The different actions of osmium tetroxide and glutaraldehyde lead us to consider that it is highly unlikely that transcellular gaps are fixation artefacts.