Histochemical studies on the lipo-pigments in the nerve cells. A comparison with lipofuscin and ceroid pigment.

Abstract

As a result of histochemical and comparative studies of lipo-pigments observed in the nerve cells and liver of hog with yellow-fat disease, experimental vitamin-E-deficient rats, and aged people over 70, it was learned that these pigments have a strong resemblance to one another, showing a chain of shifting characters, and are identical in system owing to the difference in the oxidative process of unsaturated fatty substances. Unlike that which has been stated in the past, it is impossible to draw a sharp line between ceroid pigment and lipofuscin from a histochemical point of view. The fact that ceroid pigment, which comes under an identical system with lipofuscin appearing in the process of aging, generates most easily due to vitamin-E deficiency, indicates that vitamin-E deficiency, as far as lipo-pigments are made an indication, promotes the process of the aging of cells. Fat that forms lipo-pigments is in accordance with the progress of autoxidation, and has been changed from a neutral status to acid. Moreover, phospholipides and lipoprotein are contained in lipofuscin.