Studies on the Cytoplasmic Granules in the Tumor Cells of the MTK-Sarcoma

Abstract

The present investigation deals with the morphological changes in relation to the metabolic activity of tumor cells of the MTK-sarcoma III. The changes of mitochondria were traced in living tumor cells under normal and treated conditions with the aid of phase optics.The mitochondria in living tumor cells are observed as gray or black, indistinctly outlined bodies with filamentous, rod or dot-like forms. They are generally inconstant in size and number in each cell. In general, the filamentous and rod-like mitochondria are arranged in rosette form in the cytoplasm, while those of dot-like shape scatter in the cytoplasm without definite orientation.The morphological features of mitochondria were investigated in the tumor cells through a transfer generation of the tumor, in cells treated with α-peltatin, and in a heteroplastic transplantation. The data obtained indicate that the cells with filamentous or rod-like mitochondria are of high metabolic activity and that the dot-like mitochondria are of general occurrence in the tumor cells in process of disintegration or possessing lower metabolic activity.