The Golgi Elements of Mouse Hepatic Cells Examined Refractometrically by Phase Contrast Illumination

Refractometric investigations of the Golgi elements, by phase contrast illumination, were made in the hepatic cells of the white mouse, fixed in Schaffer's and Helly's fluids. Phase negative and phase positive pictures obtained by immersion in media of known RI, beginning with p-xylene (RI=1.4968) and ending with quinoline (RI=1.6161) showed that the Golgi material in the examined cells consisted of the Golgi granules and crenated Golgi rods whose location may form complicated structures similar to the Golgi net. The Golgi elements which occurred in various hepatic cells always varied in number and they differed in size and shape and their location in relation to the nucleus was also different. The Golgi material in binucleated cells is very abundant and usually equally distributed round both nuclei without special preference for either.The changeability in the location, size and shape point out not only to the dynamics of changes going on in the Golgi elements, but they indicate also the possibility of a change in the cells of the Golgi zone or the multipolarity of the zone.The multipolarity of the Golgi zone in hepatic cells is probably closely related to the metabolism of the cells or to the smaller or greater collection of inclusions in them.