Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Global Age

First electron-microscope observations of autophagic vacuoles — Ashford and Porter

1962 AD · Transmission: Global
BiologyDiscoveryNorth American

Thomas P. Ashford and Keith R. Porter observe via electron microscopy, in rat hepatocytes perfused with glucagon, cytoplasmic components — mitochondria and remnants of them — inside lysosomes: the first direct visual evidence of a process degrading the cell's own organelles. That same year, independently, Alex B. Novikoff and Edward Essner observe similar vacuoles containing mitochondria in mouse hepatocytes treated with the detergent Triton WR-1339, naming them 'cytolysomes'. Both findings, presented at the 1963 Ciba Foundation Symposium on Lysosomes, would lead Christian de Duve to propose the unified term 'autophagic vacuole' for these structures and 'autophagy' for the process. Over the following two decades, the study stalled: working only with mammalian cells, the process seemed random and chaotic, and it was impossible to identify which proteins drove it.

InstitutionRockefeller Institute
Historical regionUnited States
Primary sourceAshford, T.P., Porter, K.R. — "Cytoplasmic Components in Hepatic Cell Lysosomes". Journal of Cell Biology 12 (1962), 198–202.
Secondary sourceNovikoff, A.B., Essner, E. — independent observation of cytolysomes in mouse hepatocytes treated with Triton WR-1339, same year 1962.
Original languageEnglish
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