Precursors of monoamine-storage organelles in developing megakaryocytes of the rat.

Identification and distribution of the precursors of amine-storage organelles in rat megakaryocytes during cell maturation were studied, using the uranaffin reaction for adenine nucleotide. The precursors of the amine-storage organelles appeared as 200-300 nm vesicles having an uranaffin electron dense granule, whereas they appeared as empty vesicles by conventional glutaraldehyde-OsO4 fixation. X-ray probe microanalysis confirmed the existence of U and P in the uranaffin reaction positive vesicles. The precursors appeared in the immature megakaryocytes, especially at the trans(mature) face of the Golgi apparatus, and rapidly increased in number in the maturing cells. The size of the uranaffin granules in the precursor organelles increased gradually during cell maturation and became almost equivalent to the dense body of blood platelets in the final stage of cell maturation.