Light- and electron-microscope observations on certain leukocytes in a teleost fish and a comparison of the envelope-limited monolayers of chromatin structural units in different species

Abstract

Previously it was shown that the nuclear envelope-limited sheets of chromatin, monolayers of nucleoprotein structural units, are present in blood cells from 4 classes of vertebrates. Now we show that sheets of similar width are present in certain leukocytes of a fifth class, a teleost fish. We describe the fine structure of leukocytes in peripheral blood and in the main haematopoietic organ, kidney. We also examined the granulocytes of connective tissue in intestine. By May-Grunwald-Giemsa staining and electron microscopy heterophilic granulocytes, cosinophils but no basophils could be recognized in peripheral blood and kidney. Problems in classification of the cells are discussed. In one group (A) of 5 fish, sheets occurred at a frequency of roughly 1% in heterophilic (type 1) granulocytes and lymphocytes from peripheral blood. No sheets were found in a second group (B) of 5 fish. Kidney and intestine were examined in some fish from both groups and no sheets were present. In an atypical group (C) sheets were found in the eosinophilic (type 2) granulocytes from peripheral blood of one fish and in lymphocytes from connective tissue of intestine in another. Sheets were usually associated with nuclei of irregular shape and their width averaged 36 nm. We tabulate data from other workers on occurence and width of sheets. They are found in all the main classes of tissue in mammals, namely blood and other connective tissues, in epithelial, nervous, germinal tissue and muscle, as well as in invertebrate and certain plants. Their nearly constant width, average value 35 nm, provides very convincing evidence for the hypothesis that the molecules of DNA and protein are organized into the same fundamental structural units, irrespective of species. We discuss the variable incidence of sheets among different cell types and the factors which might determine this.