Lysozyme Granules and Lysosome Structures in Cell Culture

I HAVE demonstrated that lysozyme from hen egg-white when added to cultures of tumoral and normal cells from humans and animals induced the appearance of granules in the cytoplasm, viewed both by light and electron microscopy 1,2 . Morphological and cytochemical tests were carried out in order to clarify the nature of these granules. The tests suggested that the intracellular structures which were connected with this phenomenon were the cytoplasmic organelles classified as lysosomes. This name was given by De Duve et al. to subcellular particles with well defined morphological and enzyme characteristics. Cytochemical reactions have shown that lysosomes contain many hydrolytic enzymes, soluble at an optimum acid p H.