JCB logo
Accuri Cytometers
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents
An addition or correction to this article has been published: J. Cell Biol. 140 (4) 973
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 482K)
Right arrow PPT slides of all figures
Right arrow Addition or Correction (v140,p973)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JCB
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Plattner, H.
Right arrow Articles by Neher, E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Plattner, H.
Right arrow Articles by Neher, E.
Right arrowPubmed/NCBI databases
*Compound via MeSH
*Substance via MeSH
Hazardous Substances DB
*CALCIUM COMPOUNDS
*CALCIUM, ELEMENTAL
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

J. Cell Biol.
© The Rockefeller University Press
0021-9525/97/12/1709/09 $2.00
Volume 139, Number 7, December 29, 1997 1709-1717

Ultrastructural Organization of Bovine Chromaffin Cell Cortex---Analysis by Cryofixation and Morphometry of Aspects Pertinent to Exocytosis

Helmut Plattner,* Antonio R. Artalejo,Dagger and Erwin NeherDagger

* Faculty of Biology, University of Konstanz, D-78434 Konstanz, Germany; and Dagger  Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany

We have analyzed ultrathin sections from isolated bovine chromaffin cells grown on plastic support, after fast freezing, by quantitative electron microscopy. We determined the size and intracellular distribution of dense core vesicles (DVs or chromaffin granules) and of clear vesicles (CVs). The average diameter of DVs is 356 nm, and that of CVs varies between 35-195 nm (average 90 nm). DVs appear randomly packed inside cells. When the distance of the center of DVs to the cell membrane (CM) is analyzed, DV density is found to decrease as the CM is approached. According to Monte Carlo simulations performed on the basis of the measured size distribution of DVs, this decay can be assigned to a "wall effect." Any cortical barrier, regardless of its function, seems to not impose a restriction to a random cortical DV packing pattern. The number of DVs closely approaching the CM (docked DVs) is estimated to be between 364 and 629 (average 496), i.e., 0.45 to 0.78 DVs/µm2 CM. Deprivation of Ca2+, priming by increasing [Ca2+]i, or depolarization by high [K+]e for 10 s (the effect of which was controlled electrophysiologically and predicted to change the number of readily releasable granules [RRGs]) does not significantly change the number of peripheral DVs. The reason may be that (a) structural docking implies only in part functional docking (capability of immediate release), and (b) exocytosis is rapidly followed by endocytosis and replenishment of the pool of docked DVs. Whereas the potential contribution of DVs to CM area increase by immediate release can be estimated at 19-33%, that of CVs is expected to be in the range of 5.6-8.0%.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents