Straited muscle cells in the thymus of reptiles and birds: an electron microscopic study.

Abstract

AbstractStriated muscle cells, the “myoid cells” of light microscopic literature, are consistently found in the thymus of reptiles and birds. Round or elongated myoid cells resemble adult skeletal or cardiac muscle fibers; however, the location of the nucleus, the course of the myofibrils, the arrangement and proportion of the thick and thin filaments, and the morphology and topography of the membranous components of the sarcoplasm are variable. Other myoid cells which contain either primitive myofibrils, irregular bundles of myofilaments associated with primitive Z plaques, or thick and thin filaments alone scattered throughout the cytoplasm, recall the various stages of the development of skeletal and cardiac muscle fibers. In these cells the ribosomes are often, but not always abundant and appear in places arranged in helices and rosettes. It is suggested that a postnatal myogenesis takes place in the thymus. Anomalous muscle cells contain thin filaments almost exclusively. In some of these cells, thin filaments are arranged in I‐segments that appear either independent of each other or interdigitated in pseudosarcomeres. Finally, some myoid cells appear to have degenerated. Desmosomes join myoid cells to reticular cells, to other myoid cells, and to epithelial cells in the walls of intraparenchymal cysts. The origin of the myoid cells from reticular cells is suggested.