The relation of nucleolus diameter to cell body diameter in mammalian dorsal root ganglion cells.

Abstract

The present study correlates cell body and nucleolar sizes for dorsal root ganglion cells in the rat. To do this, we measured cell body areas and calculated their diameters and measured nucleolar diameters for 719 cells. These data indicate that there is a correlation in that increasing cell size is associated with increasing nucleolar size. However, there is considerable variability of cell body size for each nucleolar diameter and vice versa. Nevertheless, when nucleolar diameters are grouped, the function 1n D = 1.687 + 0.334 dr, where D is the diameter of the cell body and dr the rounded diameter of the nucleolus, produced an almost straight line. Thus this formula provides a good estimate of the relation of nucleolar and cell body sizes for dorsal root ganglion cells of the rat. In addition, estimates of the variances of cell body size at each nucleolar diameter are provided.