Ultrastructural changes of basal laminae and protoplasmic astrocytes in craniostenosis with epilepsy.

Human brain biopsy specimens from twenty-four patients with epilepsy associated with craniostenosis and characterized by electroencephalography, were studied with an electron microscope. Characteristic ultrastructural changes were found in the basal lamina covering capillaries in the gray matter where the basal lamina was partially thickened, split and transformed into a heterogeneous network of strand enclosing electron-lucent areas. In the gray matter associated with epileptic convulsions, numerous filaments 60-100 nm in diameter appeared in protoplasmic astrocyte endfeet, apparently inserting in the plasma membrane adjacent to the basal lamina.

In vivo production of nucleolar channel system in human endocervical secretory cells.

Human endocervical mucosa taken from the proliferative, ovulatory and secretory phases of the menstrual cycle in normal fertile women and those after administration of norethiosterone acetate for contraception was studied by electron microscopy. The fine structure of secretory cells, with special reference to the secretory granules and nucleolar differentiation, has been described and discussed. The 'nucleolar channel system' has been observed for the first time in the endocervical nucleolus in the proliferative phase of the menstrual cycle.