Abstract
IN the course of experiments designed to study the interaction of lymphocytes with synovial cells grown in vitro1, we have found an optically clear zone beyond the cytoplasm of the synovial cells which appears to prevent contact between the two types of cell. This zone (Fig. 1) may extend laterally at least 20µ beyond the cell borders, and, judging from the appearances after a denser inoculum of blood cells, also extends in the vertical plane. The barrier can be more conveniently demonstrated with washed red blood cells. It is generated within a few hours of the attachment and spreading of synovial cells from a trypsin-dispersed cell suspension in culture medium, and persists at least 5 days. The zone has also been shown by adding a suspension of indian ink or molybdenum disulphide (average particle size 0.5 µ), but within 12–20 h these substances pass through and appear within the cell boundaries. The phenomenon has consistently been found in several strains of human synovial cells isolated in this laboratory, but has been much less pronounced in a strain of human embryonic fibroblasts. Preliminary studies with bacterial hyaluronidase suggest that the barrier is largely composed of hyaluronic acid (Fig. 2).
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CLARRIS, B., FRASER, J. Barrier around Synovial Cells in vitro. Nature 214, 1159 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/2141159a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2141159a0
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