Centrioles, microtubules and microfilaments in activated mononuclear and multinucleate macrophages from rat peritoneum: electron-microscopic and immunofluorescence microscopic studies.

In male Wistar rats of the BD I strain, mononuclear macrophages and multinucleate giant cells obtained from the peritoneum 1 day to 5 weeks after implantation of coverslips coated with dermoid cyst sebum, were examined by light microscopy and immunofluorescence microscopy, using antibodies specific for actin and tubulin and also by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. In activated mononuclear macrophages, microtubules radiate from the centrioles, situated in the perinuclear area, into the cytoplasm and the major cell processes. Microfilaments form a dense meshwork beneath the plasmalemma. When mononuclear macrophages fuse to form multinucleate giant cells, the initially unordered ("Foreign body") syncytia still reveal the original distribution patterns of centrioles, microtubules and microfilaments similar to those seen in the individual cells. In the ordered (Langhans) multinucleate giant cell all centrioles are accumulated in a main pluricorpuscular central group. Centrioles are the initiating and organising centres in the formation of microtubules. From the centrioles microtubules extend into the entire cytoplasm of the syncytium as a uniformly organised, stellate, radial system. The centrosphere, which is characteristic for ordered multinucleate giant cells, seems free from microfilaments, which form a ring-shaped woven network encircling the nuclei. Depolymerisation and inhibition of microtubules upon exposure to colchicine, indicates that both the organisation of the cytoplasm and the cellular movements depend on the undisturbed coordination of centrioles, microtubules and microfilaments. This applies also to the fusion of mononuclear macrophages to form syncytia, the ordering processes within multinucleate giant cells, and the function of ordered giant cells.