HYPOPHYSEAL MORPHOLOGY 



187 



F. THE NOMENCLATURE OF BASOPHIL CELLS 



One difficulty in the use of the term "^" 

 for a basophil cell type whose granules stain 

 with aldehyde-fuchsin and "8" for a baso- 

 phil cell type whose granules do not stain 

 with aldehyde-fuchsin is the presumption 

 that only two types of basophil cells are 

 present. In addition there is the possibility 

 that with a different staining technicjue the 

 staining reactions may be reversed, so that 

 one man's /3-cells could be another man's 

 S-cells. When three easily distinguished cell 

 types are present, it is necessary to show 

 that the granules of only one type are stain- 

 able by aldehyde-fuchsin before the term 

 /? may be allocated. The naming of the re- 

 maining two types will be arbitrary whether 

 one is called 8 or not. The major objection 

 to the use of the terms /3 and 8 according to 

 rules based on staining procedures is the 

 lack of agreement as to which rule and 

 which staining procedure should be used. 

 Herlant (1956a) suggested that the terms 

 13 and 8 should be transposed in species 

 other than man so that cells whose granules 

 are stained by aldehyde-fuchsin would be 

 called 8-cells, and the cells whose granules 

 are unstained would be called ^-cells. There 

 are in addition a number of usages of the 

 terms /S and 8 to denote cells distinguished 

 by staining reactions other than aldehyde- 

 fuchsin in its several variants. It seems 

 therefore advisable to avoid altogether the 

 application of these terms according to rule 

 until there is agreement as to which rule is 

 to be followed. The usages of Romeis in 

 man, Halmi in the rat and mouse, and Gold- 

 berg and Chaikoff in the dog can best be 

 regarded as arbitrary. 



In the present account cells whose gran- 

 ules are stained by aldehyde-fuchsin after 

 any specified staining procedure will be 

 stated to be AF-positive and called AF 

 cells after such procedure. Cells whose 

 granules are not stained by aldehyde-fuch- 

 sin after such a procedure will be stated to 

 be AF-negative and called non-AF cells. It 

 is emphasized that cells which are AF- 

 positive after one procedure may be AF- 

 negative after a different procedure. 



The varying degrees of acidophilia of 

 basophil granules allow in some species a 

 distinction between "purple" basophils and 



"blue" basophils (Purves and Griesbach, 

 1957b). The granules of purple basophils 

 retain more or less of the red component of 

 azan or Crossmon or other trichrome stain- 

 ing methods and appear in purplish shades 

 after procedures that result in a blue colora- 

 tion of the granules of blue basophils. Pur- 

 ple basophils can be distinguished from blue 

 basophils by counterstaining PAS stained 

 sections with phosphotungstic acid-orange 

 G (Herlant, 1953). The purple basophils, 

 being relatively acidophilic, retain the or- 

 ange G and become brick red, whereas the 

 blue basophils remain magenta. 



In sections stained by aldehyde-fuchsin 

 and counterstained by a trichrome method 

 we may distinguish purple AF cells, blue 

 AF cells, purple non-AF cells and blue non- 

 AF cells. Inasmuch as in many species there 

 are in the pars anterior two basophil types 

 which can be distinguished from each other 

 by certain diagnostic features, although 

 their granules stain alike, it is necessary to 

 introduce additional terms to enable each 

 cell type to be given a distinctive name. 

 Such terms can be derived from the dis- 

 tribution of the cells in the pars anterior — 

 "peripheral" or "central," "rostral" or "cau- 

 dal" — or from some other diagnostic fea- 

 ture^"pale" for lightly granulated cells, 

 etc. Such terms have no precise significance; 

 they are used merely to generate a suffi- 

 cient number of terms to enable each dis- 

 tinguishable cell type to receive a distinctive 

 name. Thus, after fixation in formol-sub- 

 limate there are in the rat pars anterior 

 blue AF cells (/3-cells of Halmi, functionally 

 thyrotrophs), and peripheral and central 

 blue non-AF cells (functionally FSH cells 

 and LH cells, respectively). The advantage 

 of these terms is that they are, or should 

 be, free from any implication that cells 

 similarly designated in different species 

 must have the same function. 



G. SPECIFIC BASOPHIL CELL TYPES 



It is now established that in the pars an- 

 terior of certain mammals (the rat, Purves 

 and Griesbach, 1951a, 1954; monkey, Daw- 

 son, 1954b; bat, Herlant, 1956a; and dog, 

 Purves and Griesbach, 1957a) three types 

 of basophils can be distinguished. In the 

 rat and bat, species which are favorable for 



