Acupuncture Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Acupuncture, including details on alternative medicine, uses, benefits, treatment, chinese medicine.

Electron microscopic study of novel threadlike structures on the surfaces of mammalian organs.

Lee BC, Yoo JS, Ogay V, Kim KW, Dobberstein H, Soh KS, Chang BS

Biomedical Physics Laboratory, FPRD, School of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

The ultrastructures of novel threadlike structures (NTSs) and corpuscles on the surfaces of internal organs of rats were investigated using electron microscopy. The samples were studied in situ by using a stereomicroscope and were taken for further morphological analysis. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images revealed a bundle structure of threadlike tissue, which was composed of several 10-micro m-thick subducts. The surfaces of the corpuscles were rather coarse and fenestrated. The corpuscles had cucumber-like shapes with an average length of about 2 mm and a thickness of about 400 micro m. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images disclosed disordered collagen fibers, which formed the extracellular matrix of the threadlike tissue, and immune-function cells, like macrophages, mast cells, and eosinophils. Sinuses of various diameters, which were thought to be cross-sections of the lumens of the subducts, were observed in the TEM, cryo-SEM and focused-ion-beam SEM images. These SEM images were obtained for the first time to reveal the detailed structure of the NTSs that were only recently discovered.

Published 21 December 2006 in Microsc Res Tech, 70(1): 34-43.
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