MITOCHONDRIAL ARRANGEMENT IN ALVEOLAR EPICYTES AND FOAM CELLS OF MOUSE LUNGS, PARTICULARLY AS INDUCED BY THE VACUOLOIDS

¹ Department of Histological Research of tile Faculty of Medicine of the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

In epicytes and foam cells the combined perivacuoloidal groups of mitochondria present, in thin sections, an outstanding and characteristic lacelike picture based on the disposition and condition of the vacuoloids. Its determination is probably mechanical. Mitochondria are never found within the vacuoloids. An incomplete layer immediately underneath the cell membrane, amid another around the nucleus, are found. In the former the rods often lie parallel with the membrane and sometimes in double rows.

In epicytes there is often a distinctive group, mostly of rods, which suggest the outer layer of the fasces, and lie in the long axis of the shank, arranged in a circle around a central area devoid of them. Bizarre angulated and branched arrangements are noted in the peripheries of the heads of epicytes.

In foam cells the mitochondrial content varies, often being abundant and conspicuous, and again, perhaps in older cells, relatively inconspicuous.

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