[Nerve and glial cells of the sympathetic ganglia of mice of different ages. I. Interferometric and electron microscopic study of the perikarya of nerve cells of normally developing animals].

The perikarya of sympathetic nerve cells from stellate ganglia of 1.3 and 8 month old mice were studied by interference and electron microscopy. Both the number of nerve cells and the dry weight of their perikarya are the same in animals of different ages. According to the ultrastructure, all the sympathetic neurons of adult mice belong to one of the two main groups. The "dark" cells are characterized by a higher electron opacity of nucleo and cytoplasm, the convoluted nuclear envelope and endoplasmic reticulum being randomly distributed throughout the cytoplasm. In the "light" cells from ganglia of I and 3 month old mice, the granular endoplasmic reticulum forms a kind of a belt around the nucleus and is situated in the middle area of the cytoplasm. The majority of nerve cells from the ganglia of 8 month old mice, in addition to the increase in pigment granule contents, are characterized by a lower frequency of the rough endoplasmic reticulum without changes in the number of polysomes not attached to membranes.