Vitamin C microscopic demonstration and Golgi apparatus

Abstract

Sodium thiosulphale may operate directly upon the silver nitrate adsorbed by various cellular and tissular structures, giving rise to a black precipitate of silver sulphide. This precipitate would give rise to a technical artefact, appearing as something added to the genuine picture given by the direct reduction of silver nitrate by the vitamin. The application of a cytochemical method, involving adequate use of sodium sulphite after the acid silver nitrate and prior to the thiosulphate, prevents the silver sulphide precipitate, and shows: a) that vitamin C appears only in the form of granules, irregularly distributed in the cytoplasm; b) that vitamin C storage inside the Golgi apparatus or mitochondria never occurs; c) that the Golgi-like pictures that may occasionally be observed when using the classical silver method, do most probably represent silver impregnation pictures of the Golgi apparatus. This must not be accepted as an equivalent of the silver nitrate reduction by vitamin C stored in the Golgi apparatus.