An electron microscope study of intrusions into alarm substance cells of the channel catfish

Thin and ultrathin sections of the epidermis of two channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus were studied in light and electron microscopes, respectively, to learn more about intrusions of entire other cell types into alarm substance cells, first noted in 1981. Several degrees of intrusion and several stages in the process of total intrusion are described: microvillus-like projections, pseudopod-like projections, telophase-stage projections, total cell intrusion. In addition, several different cell types intrude: lymphocyte-like cells, general epidermal cells, virus-infected cells and other alarm substance cells. These findings indicate that the alarm substance cell is extraordinarily subject to invasion by other cell types. They suggest that its plasma membrane may have been modified so as to be somewhat less effective in preserving cell integrity (and thus more easily release its alarm pheromone on injury) than is the case with most other cell types or that the alarm substance acts as an attractant for other epidermal cells.