Female Axillary Apocrine Sweat Glands 193 



pigment granules could develop into the brown ones. When 

 they contain iron, the yellow pigment granules gradually lose 

 iron, or perhaps the inorganic iron is gradually transformed 

 into organic iron. However, there might be two yellow pig- 

 ments, only one of which contains iron. Ionic iron is never 

 found in the terminal cytoplasm of the cells. 



Not all axillary apocrine cells contain pigmented granules. 

 In the glands of some individuals the secretory cells possess 

 only traces of pigmented and lipoidal granules. In their 

 places, the supranuclear cytoplasm has usually chromophobic 

 and occasionally slightly basophilic secretion spherules. In 

 some subjects these spherules are the only secretory elements 

 present; in others they may be admixed with pigmented 

 ones. With Heidenhain's haematoxylin the "chromophobic" 

 spherules stain a clear blue-black. They are Schiff-reactive 

 but resist digestion with diastase or saliva. 



The base of each apocrine cell is usually stippled with nume- 

 rous fine basophilic granules, which often gives these cells a 

 longitudinal striation. The cytoplasm lateral to and above 

 the nucleus is weakly basophilic. In each cell a spherical 

 region above the nucleus, which corresponds to the negative 

 image of the Golgi apparatus, is free of basophilic granules. 

 The apical and terminal cytoplasm of apocrine cells is almost 



PLATE III 



Fig. 7. Sudanophilic pigment granules in an axillary gland from a 28-year-old 



woman. Paraffin section coloured with Sudan black. 

 Fig. 8. Normal distribution of sudanophilic pigment granules in an axillary 

 gland from a 78-year-old woman. Compare with Fig. 7. Paraffin section 



coloured with Sudan black. 

 Fig. 9. Iron in the axillary gland of a 78-year-old woman. The large pig- 

 mented granules are unreactive to this test. Section treated with the Prussian 



blue method of Gomori. 

 Fig. 10. Epithelial cells from a dilated gland from the axilla of a 72-year-old 

 woman. The lumen is to the left of the cells. The granules in the cytoplasm are 



stained metachromatically with toluidine blue. 

 Fig. 11. Flattened epithelial cells from an axillary gland of a 69-year-old 

 woman. The cytoplasm contains glycogen granules. The flocculent content of 

 the lumen is Schiff-reactive. Stained with the periodic acid-Schiff method. 

 Fig. 12. Intensely stained colloid in an axillary gland from a 71 -year-old 

 woman. Section treated with the periodic acid-Schiff method. 

 ageing vol. 2 8 



