TIME-DEPENDENCY OF THE LYMPHATIC EFFLUX OF INTRACEREBRALLY APPLI ED CORPUSCULAR TRACERS LIGHT AND ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC INVESTIGATIONS

M Oehmichen, H Wietholter, H Gruninger, H Wolburg

Abstract


Morphologic methods were used to investigate the
rate at which intracerebrally injected corpuscular
tracers (carbon, ferritin, and colloidal gold) appear
in the cervical lymph nodes of rabbits. The survival
intervals ranged from 3 minutes to 90 days. The
lymph nodes were examined with light microscopy
and sometimes also with electron microscopy.
Ferritin was first detected in the deep paratracheal
cervical lymph nodes 6 minutes after injection with
electron microscopy and 10 minutes after injection
with light microscopy. All tracers appeared first ex-
tracellularly in the sinuses of the lymph nodes; within
3 hours, however, they had been almost entirely
incorporated, appearing then in the sinus lining cells
as well as in the lymph node macro phages. In the fol·
lowing days, the tracer concentrated and accumulated
in the macrophages. After 12 days, all tracer-bear·
ing macrophages had already disappeared . The
amount and distribution of tracer in the sinus lining
cells, however, remained virtually unchanged during
the entire 3-month observation period. The impor-
tance of these observations is discussed.


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