List of abbreviations
Vocabulary
of micros-
copic
anatomy
specialist terms
explained in
English +
German

Every attempt was made to provide correct information and labelling, however any liability for eventual errors or incompleteness is rejected!

dieser Seite

Editor:
Dr. med.
H. Jastrow


Conditions
of use
Overview telolysosome = residual body (Telolysosoma = Corpusculum residuale):
Pages with explanations are linked to the text below the images if available! (Labelling is in German)
telolysosome of a neuron
in cerebral cortex (rat)
overview thereof hetero- & telolysosomes
neuron of cerebral cortex (rat)
lipofuscin vesicles
ganglion cell (rat)
telolysosome with
lipofuscin (rat)
several telolysosomes
with lipofuszin (rat)

Telolysosomes (Terminologia histologica: Telolysosomae) are also called residual bodies (Terminologia histologica: Corpuscula residualia) or lipofuscin vesicles. The old term for these organelles was tertiary lysosomes. Telolysosomes originate from heterolysosomes and do no longer contain any usable substances therefore the term residual bodies. The term "lipofuscin granules" derives from light microscopy and is electron microscopically wrong since the organelles are no granules like e.g., glycogen, but are bordered by a unit membrane as it is typical for all forms of vesicles. The mean diameter of telelysosomes when cut is 0.2 to 0.6 µm which is considerably less than the mean diameter of heterolysosomes. Typically, some hardly electron-dense areas are present among the otherwise very electron-dense granular content. These areas are due to the fatty component of the lipofuscin (an ageing pigment). Residual bodies may migrate to the cell membrane fuse with it and deliver their content into the extracellular space. Possibly this usually happens quickly in most normal cells resulting in small numbers of these organelles. Telolysosomes are more frequently seen in macrophages and nerve cells which produce lipofuscin while their lipofuscin removal is extremely slow. This is the reason for the high amount of residual bodies especially in old nerve cells.

--> (primary) lysosomes - heterolysosomes, cytoplasm, macrophages
--> Electron microscopic atlas Overview
--> Homepage of the workshop


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