The fetal liver plays an important role in hemopoiesis during mammalian development. Morphological and immunocytochemical studies were carried out to identify and characterize cellular components that may be responsible for producing the liver hemopoietic environment. Cytospot preparations, from fetal livers of 11-18 days gestation, reacted with specific antibodies enabled us to characterize and quantitate the different cell populations. / Light microscope observations also showed areas of close cell associations involving two classes of central cells and peripheral erythroid cells. Such associations were distinguished based on their immunocytochemical characteristics (AFP vs. Mac-1 central cells) and quantitative appearance throughout cytospots. / The presence of these significant cell associations was also observed in ultrastructural studies that produced further characteristics of these central cells. Characteristic lipid inclusions, glycogenic particles and positive AFP reactions were localized to central hepatocytes. Macrophages in cell associations contained numerous phagocytic particles and distinct peroxidase activity within the nuclear envelope and endoplasmic reticulum. Extra-cellular matrix components of electron dense nature were noted to emanate from delicate cytoplasmic processes that appeared to keep these associations intact. Fibronectin positive reactions were also specifically localized to central hepatocytes in cell associations. Further morphological and immunocytochemical features of these cell associations in the liver hemopoietic microenvironment are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59386 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Gill, Jagjit Singh |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Anatomy.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001068831, proquestno: AAIMM63544, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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