Studies on the Structure of Cytoplasmic Basophilia I. Agglutination of Cytoplasmic Basophilia and its Relationship to Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)

From the recent investgation on reticulocyte by Seno, Kanda and others, it was inferred that basophilic substance should be the residue of the cytoplasmic basophilia of erythroblast. And by further cytochemical and physicochemical analysis it was concluded that the reticular substance must be the agglutinated basophilic organella in the cytoplasm. The purpose of this paper is to clarify whether or not the basophilic substance of general body cells has the same characteristics as that of reticulum of reticulocytes. Observations were carried out on the effects of a series of chemicals upon the basophilic cytoplasm of various cells. The chemicals used were those of dehydrating agents of protein, such as ether gas, hypertonic NaN(3) and ethanol, and those of precipitating agents of RNA, such as nile blue and streptomycin. Samely as on the reticulocyte all of these chemicals resulted in the agglutination of basophilia on all sort of basophilic cells observed giving granular, fibrous or reticular structures. However the morphologic picture of the coagulated basophilia was almost the same in the same kind of cells treated with varied chemicals, though the changed pictures were also demonstrable by the changed duration of treatment. Through this experiment it was demonstrated that the basophilia of cytoplasm of various cells, which appeared homogenious on freezing dried and stained sections or in wet preparations under phasecontrast microscope, gave fibrous or reticular feature by the affection of the same chemicals as acted to form reticulum in reticulocytes.