UNLABELLED Pompe disease (PD) can be diagnosed by measuring alpha-glucosidase levels or by identifying mutations in the gene enzyme. Muscle biopsies can aid diagnosis in doubtful cases. METHODS A review of muscle biopsy from 19 cases of PD (infantile, 6 cases; childhood, 4 cases; and juvenile/adult, 9 cases). RESULTS Vacuoles with or without glycogen storage were found in 18 cases. All case...

Haemophilus influenzae belongs to respiratory tract microbiota. We observed vacuoles formation in previous studies with H. influenzae culture supernatants, so in this work we characterised that cytotoxic effect. We observed an abundant production of acidic cytoplasmic vacuoles due to the presence of a "vacuolating factor" in H. influenzae supernatants which was characterised as thermolabile. Gr...

We report here an electron microscopic study of selected nervous system tissues from pigs infected experimentally with the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Generally, the ultrastructural neuropathology of BSE-affected pig brain resembled that of BSE-affected cattle brain. Spongiform change, in the form of membrane-bound vacuoles separated by septae into secondary chambers, domin...

Plants store proteins in embryo and vegetative cells to provide carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur resources for subsequent growth and development. The storage and mobilization cycles of amino acids that compose these proteins are critical to the life cycle of plants. Mechanisms for protein storage and mobilization serve many different developmental and physiological functions. For example, stored pr...

Leishmania are protozoan parasites that cause several human diseases called leishmaniases, which can display very different clinical aspects (Peters and Killick-Kendrick, 1987b). The life cycle of Leishmania involves two kinds of hosts: dipteran insects (sandflies) and several mammals, in which they adopt a motile, flagellated, promastigote form and a non-motile, amastigote form with a very sho...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia among older people. It is characterized by the extracellular accumulation of beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposits called senile or neuritic plaques. Abeta is generated by the proteolytic cleavage of Abeta precursor protein (APP) by beta and gamma-secretases localized in the secretory and endocytic compartments. In this issue, Yu et al. (on p...

SYNOPSIS. When the structures involved in digestive events in T. pyriformis are examined at the electron microscope level, some information is added to that long known from light microscopy. The food trapping mechanism consists of the three membranelles, undulating membrane, oral ribs, and a “valve” apparently closing the opening to the cytopharynx. Both of the latter structures are supported b...