Staining of intercellular material in reaggregating chick liver and cartilage cells

Abstract

Abstract Lanthanum has been used to study the immediate cellular environement in reaggregating liver and cartilage cells and in mixtures of the two cell types in order to permit visualization of intercellular material by electron microscopy. Lanthanum staining material was absent from the cell surface in freshly isolated cells but was present between cells in all stages of reassociation. The stained material characteristic of cartilage and liver cells differed. Thus in mixed reaggregates it can be demonstrated that from early stages in the process cells are exposed to different sorts of cell products. Enzymatic treatment of reaggregates suggested that lanthanum may stain mucopolysaccharide.