ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF BASOPHILIC COMPONENTS OF CYTOPLASM

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Abstract
Electron microscopy of thinly spread cells grown in vitro has defined, as a component of the cytoplasm, a complex reticulum of strands and vesicles which has come to be called the endoplasmic reticulum. The component is limited by a membrane similar in thickness (ca. 80 Å) to the plasma membrane of the cell. It separates the content of the strands and vesicles from the general matrix of the cytoplasm and gives to the whole component the character of a finely divided vacuolar system. The elements of the system are frequently large enough to be resolved by light microscopy and can be shown to have an affinity for basic dyes. The system has therefore been identified as a basophilic component of the cytoplasm (25).