Skip to main content
The Journal of Cell Biology logoLink to The Journal of Cell Biology
. 1983 Aug 1;97(2):562–565. doi: 10.1083/jcb.97.2.562

Visualization of longitudinally-oriented intermediate filaments in frozen sections of chicken cardiac muscle by a new staining method

PMCID: PMC2112529  PMID: 6193126

Abstract

When ultrathin frozen sections of chicken cardiac muscle were osmicated, dehydrated in ethanol, embedded in ethyl cellulose, and stained with acidic uranyl acetate, filaments of 10-12 nm width were visualized in wide interfibrillar spaces. Immunostaining of the frozen sections for desmin resulted in exclusive labeling of such filaments. These observations indicated that longitudinally oriented networks of intermediate filaments were present in the interfibrillar spaces, in addition to the transversely oriented networks that surround myofibrils at the level of Z band. As in skeletal muscle (Tokuyasu, K. T., A. H. Dutton, and S. J. Singer, 1983, J. Cell Biol. 97:1727-1735), desmin in chicken cardiac muscle is believed to be largely, if not entirely, in the form of intermediate filaments.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.7 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Behrendt H. Effect of anabolic steroids on rat heart muscle cells. I. Intermediate filaments. Cell Tissue Res. 1977 May 31;180(3):303–315. doi: 10.1007/BF00227598. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Eisenberg B. R., Kuda A. M., Peter J. B. Stereological analysis of mammalian skeletal muscle. I. Soleus muscle of the adult guinea pig. J Cell Biol. 1974 Mar;60(3):732–754. doi: 10.1083/jcb.60.3.732. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Fawcett D. W., McNutt N. S. The ultrastructure of the cat myocardium. I. Ventricular papillary muscle. J Cell Biol. 1969 Jul;42(1):1–45. doi: 10.1083/jcb.42.1.1. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Ferrans V. J., Roberts W. C. Intermyofibrillar and nuclear-myofibrillar connections in human and canine myocardium. An ultrastructural study. J Mol Cell Cardiol. 1973 Jun;5(3):247–257. doi: 10.1016/0022-2828(73)90065-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Geuze J. J., Slot J. W., Tokuyasu K. T. Immunocytochemical localization of amylase and chymotrypsinogen in the exocrine pancreatic cell with special attention to the Golgi complex. J Cell Biol. 1979 Sep;82(3):697–707. doi: 10.1083/jcb.82.3.697. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. KIELLEY W. W., BRADLEY L. B. The relationship between sulfhydryl groups and the activation of myosin adenosinetriphosphatase. J Biol Chem. 1956 Feb;218(2):653–659. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lazarides E., Hubbard B. D. Immunological characterization of the subunit of the 100 A filaments from muscle cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Dec;73(12):4344–4348. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.12.4344. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Tokuyasu K. T. A study of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections. J Ultrastruct Res. 1978 Jun;63(3):287–307. doi: 10.1016/s0022-5320(78)80053-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Tokuyasu K. T., Dutton A. H., Geiger B., Singer S. J. Ultrastructure of chicken cardiac muscle as studied by double immunolabeling in electron microscopy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Dec;78(12):7619–7623. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.12.7619. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Tokuyasu K. T., Dutton A. H., Singer S. J. Immunoelectron microscopic studies of desmin (skeletin) localization and intermediate filament organization in chicken cardiac muscle. J Cell Biol. 1983 Jun;96(6):1736–1742. doi: 10.1083/jcb.96.6.1736. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Tokuyasu K. T., Dutton A. H., Singer S. J. Immunoelectron microscopic studies of desmin (skeletin) localization and intermediate filament organization in chicken skeletal muscle. J Cell Biol. 1983 Jun;96(6):1727–1735. doi: 10.1083/jcb.96.6.1727. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Tokuyasu K. T. Immunochemistry on ultrathin frozen sections. Histochem J. 1980 Jul;12(4):381–403. doi: 10.1007/BF01011956. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Tokuyasu K. T., Singer S. J. Improved procedures for immunoferritin labeling of ultrathin frozen sections. J Cell Biol. 1976 Dec;71(3):894–906. doi: 10.1083/jcb.71.3.894. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Wang K., Ramirez-Mitchell R. A network of transverse and longitudinal intermediate filaments is associated with sarcomeres of adult vertebrate skeletal muscle. J Cell Biol. 1983 Feb;96(2):562–570. doi: 10.1083/jcb.96.2.562. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Cell Biology are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES