Abstract
adrenal glands of the mouse, fixed either in glutaraldehyde followed by osmiumtetroxide or in a mixture of potassium dichromate and glutaraldehyde, and embeddedin Epon 812, were investigated by light and electron microscopy. An argentaffinreaction was applied to semi-thin sections for light microscopy and to ultra-thinsections for electron microscopy. Since the mature secretory granules in the SmallGranule Chromaffin (SGC) cell were argentaffin and were mainly located along thecell membrane, this cell was clearly distinguishable under the light microscope bothfrom the A (adrenaline) cell whose secretory granules were non-argentaffin and fromthe NA (noradrenaline) cell whose cytoplasm was rich and was filled with large, strongly argentaffin granules. Chromaffinity of the SGC cell was demonstrated underthe light microscope. The SGC cell was intensively stained with toluidine bluewithout revealing metachromasia. It was demonstrated at the EM level that notonly the secretory granules but also the synaptic-like vesicles in the SGC cell containedargentaffin substances. Possible functional relationship between the secretory granules and the synaptic-like vesicles was discussed.
