Cellular junctions in perifollicular contractile tissue of the rat ovary during the preovulatory period

Rat ovarian perifollicular contractile tissue was examined at specified intervals prior to ovulation to determine the type, relative number, and length of cellular junctions. Rat ovaries were taken for electron-microscopic observation at 1500 h on the afternoon of proestrus (proestrus 0-h group), at 2000 h (proestrus 5 h group), at 0100 h (proestrus 10-h group) and at 1600 h on the afternoon of diestrus I. Close junctions, intermediate junctions, and gap junctions were counted and measured. Then number of gap junctions/1,000 micrometers of membrane and the number of intermediate junctions/1,000 micrometers of membrane was significantly higher in the proestrus 10 h groups as compared to the other groups. There was no difference in the number of close junctions during the periods studied. Also the length of all junctions was similar in all groups. These morphological findings are discussed in the context of contractile role for perifollicular tissue in the ovulatory process.

[Topography of the gap junctions in human skin and their possible role in the nonneural transmission of information]

Localization and distribution of the gap junctions in the human epidermis have been studied. They are mainly concentrated in the area of biologically active (acupunctive) points and in so called meridians connecting these points. A supposition is made that the gap junction system performs certain integration of the information from the skin surface and its aneural transmission to remote areas. Discovery of a regulated gap junction system in relatively low organized animals (previously described by the authors), as well as revealing of such a system in mammals, makes it possible to suppose that the system is phylogenetically the most ancient one performing a directed transmission of an information simultaneously with and besides the neural system.

[Information given by interneuronal junctions of the rat cerebral cortex during the post-asphyxia period]

Using PTA technique, the organization of subsynaptic units (paramembrane specialized formations of the cytoskeleton) was revealed in the molecular layer of the rat neocortex during post-asphyxia period. The density and summarized length of the active contact zone (ACZ) with different degree of maturity of subsynaptic units were calculated and the information was evaluated. It was revealed that the total length of ACZ synapses was restored to the control level on the 7th day after asphyxia and the information of the synaptic pool was 30.1% on the 14th day, in spite of a significant deficiency in the synapse density. The information of the synaptic pool was restored mainly due to hypertrophy of interneuronal contacts with well developed presynaptic grating.