Cretoiu D, Hummel E, Zimmermann H, Gherghiceanu M, Popescu L M
Department of Cell Biology and Histology, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania; 'Victor Babeş' National Institute of Pathology, Bucharest, Romania.
J Cell Mol Med. 2014 Nov;18(11):2157-64. doi: 10.1111/jcmm.12468. Epub 2014 Oct 17.
Telocyte (TC) is a newly identified type of cell in the cardiac interstitium (www.telocytes.com). TCs are described by classical transmission electron microscopy as cells with very thin and long telopodes (Tps; cellular prolongations) having podoms (dilations) and podomers (very thin segments). TCs' three-dimensional (3D) morphology is still unknown. Cardiac TCs seem to be particularly involved in long and short distance intercellular signalling and, therefore, their 3D architecture is important for understanding their spatial connections. Using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) we show, for the first time, the whole ultrastructural anatomy of cardiac TCs. 3D reconstruction of cardiac TCs by FIB-SEM tomography confirms that they have long, narrow but flattened (ribbon-like) telopodes, with humps generated by the podoms. FIB-SEM tomography also confirms the network made by TCs in the cardiac interstitium through adherens junctions. This study provides the first FIB-SEM tomography of a human cell type.
