Some morphological changes occurring in epithelial cells as a result of disease / by D'Arcy Power.

  • Power, D'Arcy, 1855-1941.
Date:
1896
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some morphological changes occurring in epithelial cells as a result of disease / by D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    stance. Both parts of the cell are equally affected in some cases, but usually one part is more affected than the other. The degenera- tion varies, too, in amount from the very slightest extent to complete disintegration. The simplest changes are to be seen in Plate VI. Fig. 1, where a large spheroidal cell contains a partially digested leucocyte, which is itself provided with two nuclei. The substance of the epithelial cell has partially shrunk away from its periphery, and such unecpual shrinking of the cells is not at all uncommon in degenerating epithelium. The outer portion of the cell and the periphery of the nucleus present a number of spaces or dots which stain less deeply than the rest of the cell-substance. Some of the other cells in this field of the microscope present indications of similar degenerative changes, whilst in the cell lying directly above the central one, there are two circular patches of degeneration in the cell-substance. Plate VII. Fig. 2 presents somewhat similar changes, but they are more advanced and are clearly in the same direction of colloid change. The nuclei of the cells appear to be normal, but in the central cell the protoplasm is degenerating, whilst its neighbour exhibits a remarkably well-defined patch. These circumscribed patches are very numerous in all the sections of the tumour. Each is spherical, and, as they only stain lightly, the centre appears to be darker than the outer portion when they are seen in optical section. Similar circular patches of degeneration are of common occurrence in epithelium which has been artificially irritated. I have depicted several varieties of tins form of change in a previous paper.1 It should be borne in mind, however, that all the circular bodies found in diseased or irritated epithelium are not necessarily due to colloid degeneration in parts of the cell-substance, for an entire cell may degenerate in such a manner as to leave a more or less circular central mass, whilst the outline is not so clean-cut as in the previous form. An example of so complete a cellular change is seen in Plate VII. Fig. 3, where the indented outline is very conspicuous. This appearance is almost identical with that represented in Plate IX. Fig. 8 in the third volume of this Journal. The change is a complete one, and in neither case does the central mass represent the original nucleus of the cell. Plate VII. Fig. 4 shows an intranuclear degeneration in a very complete form. The affected nuclei are swollen and circular, whilst the cell-substance has shrunk away from them in some of the cells. The change is best marked in the nuclei, but it is not confined to them, for to the left of the centre of the section is a minute circular mass of degeneration, like that seen on a larger scale in Plate VII. Fig. 2. Plate VII. Fig. 5, shows changes in many respects similar to those 1 Jmirn. Path, and Bacterial., Edin. and London, 1894, vol. Hi. Plate VIII. Figs. 3, 4, and 6, and Plate IX. Fig. 7.
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