Daily Archives: August 16, 2017

Perfluorocarbon compounds and lysosomes: slippery mix

Electron microgaphs of lung, Legacy Perfluorocarbons, The cell: images

I posted a few days ago (here) a phrase which i thought was a little off color, and definitely made for effect, but stirred up something of interest in the way that perfluorochemicals “slippery and inert” might create or produce unusual lysosomal structures.  I did post a composit lysosomal structure which looked to be like a little pouch full of varying size beads, or droplets, which are presumed to be the footprints of perfluorochemical left after liquid breathing or invusion of PFC emulsions.  I examined some additional lysosomes this morning and it is clear there are many tiny droplets that are mixed in among some very large droplets, and these are so close to the nucleus, and near, perhaps almost looking like a connection, some of the ER in the cell which could be classified as RER.  PFC ispossibly moving back up the ER profiles, and while all the names for endosomes (early, late, hybrid, budding, bla bla) this system is obviously continuous and naming “early” “late” etc  adds little to the understanding (in my humble opinion), but naming them by pH and activities and/or membrane proteins associated, would be beneficial. Another issue is why there is a distinct dark band around the PFC droplets, it gives the appearance of TWO trilaminar membranes rather than a typical membrane bound endosome or lysosome.

Below is a micrograph (actually a scan of the original negative since the print I had marked and draw all over) which has two magnifications. Top image has white box which is enlarged below it, and the long stringy lysosomal structures are very close to the nucleus, even adjacent RER.  this is almost like the “egg in snake” appearance.  Presumptive perfluorochemical droplets (in this case E2 — structure given HERE) are colored green, the most electron dense areas surrounding the green (darker green) are lysosomal enzymes (also presumptive since I have not done any specific staining to verity it… but it is obvious.) White arrows point to the tiniest droplets (some in the range of about 30 nm, and some of those light areas may be tangential cuts off the ends of larger particles.

I suppose it is possible that the movement of PFC up the RER is to be expected because of its spreading chemical properties (at least according to Jean G. Riess and Marie Pierre Krafft.

Love casts out fear and hate

Political - thoughts, Rants

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion … People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love … For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite,” Obama said, quoting former South African president Nelson Mandela”. This is lifted from a google search for Obama’s tweets about Charlottesville violence.

It brought tears to my eyes and reinforced the differences in style between this past president and the current one. The difference is as big as the grand canyon.
But i also am a biologist, and also a student of religion. It is clear that identification of “self” and “others similar to self” is a big part of survival, procreation, continuation of the species. We need to be taught to “hate” but we are wired to “love like minded and like-looking humans”.

Some religions, cultures, philosophies, teach that LOVE casts out fear, and it is typically fear that causes us to “hate” or be “aggressive”. Other religions teach people to “HATE and OBLITERATE” what is different in an effort to allay their fears about survival. Fear itself is either learned, or experienced or both. Extrapolate teachings and experiences, to unhealthy mindsets, and daily situations, and one ends up an enormous amount of fear, hate and violence.  We need to overcome fear with the more powerful force, which is LOVE.