Glycocalyceal bodies on goblet cells in the human upper airways.

The ultrastructure and distribution of glycocalyceal bodies are described in the nasal and tracheal respiratory epithelium of children suffering from chronic airway infections. From the presented data it is assumed that glycocalyceal bodies do occur in chronic infected airways and are related only with the goblet cells; they seem not to be formed by budding from the microvillus membrane or by secretion of rod-containing bodies (R-bodies), a formation of glycocalyceal bodies by budding from the apical cell membrane cannot be fully excluded; plasmamembrane and membrane surrounding intracytoplasmic secretory granules may in some way contribute to the formation of glycocalyceal bodies, glycocalyceal bodies may represent a means by which excess of membrane is eliminated from the cell; further investigations, beyond the scope of the present study, are required to fully solve the problems on the origin(s) and function(s) of glycocalyceal bodies.