| Abstract: | In both light and electron microscopes, head cartilage from the squid Loligo pealii strongly resembles vertebrate hyaline cartilage. The tissue is characterized by the presence of irregularly-shaped cells suspended in an abundant matrix. Cell and matrix contents stain metachromatically with cationic dyes such as toluidin blue. Each cell gives off extensions which ramify via a network of channels throughout the matrix. Thereby, a system of inter-connecting canaliculi is established, with many similarities to the intercanalicular systems seen in vertebrate bone and cartilage tissues. In the electron microscope, the squid cartilage cells are seen to have very abundant endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi complex material. Mitochondrial transformations involving loss of cristae, the appearance of filaments in the mitochondrial matrix, and figures suggesting budding, also occur. Nuclear pores are numerous and easily detected. The matrix is characterized by the presence of a system of decussating fibrils which form polygonal figures, with granules usually evident at the points of intersection of fibrils. By chemical analysis the tissue contains 3- and 4-hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine. Preliminary wide single x-ray diffractions show a pattern characteristic for unoriented collagens, with 12 Å (intermolecular) and 2.86 Å (helix) reflections. |
