Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s3-89, 333-350, Copyright © 1948 by Company of Biologists

A Study of the Spheroid System of Sympathetic Neurones with Special Reference to the Problem of Neurosecretion

¹ Beit Memorial Medical Research Fellow; Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, Oxford

1. Evidence is put forward in support of the view that the Golgi complement of the vertebrate sympathetic neurone consists of a dispersed system of spherical bodies. These bodies can be studied in living cells and with vital dyes and each consists of a neutral red staining core (the vacuome of Parat) enveloped in a lipoidal sheath.

2. The classical Golgi body is shown to be an artifact produced within the cell. With the osmium techniques the spheroid bodies together with the mitochondria form a framework which serves as a centre for a non-specific deposition of metallic particles.

3. The Golgi spheroids exhibit a secretion cycle with the formation of a granular product. The granules are identified with the ‘neurosecretion’ granules of Scharrer.

4. These granules appear to be transported to the nucleus of the cell and there to be absorbed. This observed interrelationship between nucleus and Golgi product is discussed.