Morphometric and autoradiographic analysis of protein biosynthesis and transcription in sympathetic neurons of normal and partially desympathized rats

The authors undertake a differential morphometric analysis of the ultrastructural components for the protein-synthesizing apparatus: the rough endoplasmic reticulum and the ribosomes, polysomes, and monoribosomes in the cytoplasm of sympathetic nerve cells, connected with it, in rats. Tritium-UTP was applied to sections through a ganglion 8 micro thick and fixed in alcohol and acetone. Autoradiographhic analysis indicated differences in the level of template activity of the chromatin in the control and desympathized animals aged 6 months. The increase in the intensity of transcription was most marked for nucleolar chromatin