Morphological and histochemical studies on guinea pig hyalocytes
Tagawa, Y.; Saga, T.; Matsuda, H.
Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi 90(3): 522-526
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0029-0203 PMID: 2424289 Document Number: 272047
There exists a homogenous population of cells in the mammal vitreous of the eye. These cells named hyalocytes are characteristic of phagocytic property, amoeboid movement and granules exhibiting autofluorescence. It has been postulated that these cells are macrophage-like cells. It, however, still remains obscure whether these cells originate from blood monocytes, that is belong to the cells of monocyte-macrophage lineage. In this study we examined guinea pig hyalocytes by electronmicroscopy, cytohistochemical and immunohistochemical methods in order to clarify the character of hyalocytes. Electronmicroscopically guinea pig hyalocytes were homogeneous cells which had an irregular nucleous with moderately condensed chromatin and primary and secondary lysosomes in the cytoplasm. Cytohistochemical studies showed that hyalocytes were PAS, ATPase, nonspecific esterase and acid phosphatase positive, but peroxidase negative by light microscopy. A part of hyalocytes was Ia of major histocompatibility complex antigens positive, but all of them were surface immunoglobulin negative. The findings above show that hyalocytes share many characteristics with monocytes and macrophages. Therefore, these results support the concept that hyalocytes are the cells of monocyte-macrophage lineage.