Three-dimensional analysis of erythrophagosomes in rat mesenteric lymph node macrophages.

Erythrocytes extravasated into the sinuses of the rat mesenteric lymph nodes as a result of short-term clamping of the portal vein were, although autologous, phagocytized markedly by the lymph node macrophages at 1 hr after reopening of the vein. The erythrophagosomes formed in the macrophages were exposed three-dimensionally by the cellular matrix maceration method and observed with a high-resolution scanning electron microscope. These results were compared to those obtained by conventional transmission electron microscopy. The process of degradation of an erythrocyte took about 6 hr. Coated pits were formed on the erythrophagosomal membrane at the early stage, and the erythrophagosomes were degraded by two different pathways: 1) the degradative pathway by invaginations of the phagosomal membrane, through which the erythrophagosome shrank and broke into secondary lysosomes, and 2) the hemolytic degradative pathway, by which it lost its content and formed a ghost.