Figure 5
Ultrastructural changes following culture with Tnv-6.
Representative TEM images of cells from one (out of 3) CLL specimen after culture without (a) or in the presence of Tnv-6 (b) demonstrate differences in cellular ultrastructure and integrity after Tnv-6 treatment. To visualize subcellular differences in greater detail, images at higher magnification are shown of a cell each from control cultures (c) and Tnv-6 containing cultures (d). The latter cell, highlighted within an interrupted line box in (b) contains double-membrane bound cytoplasmic vacuoles (black arrows) suggestive of early autophagosomes. In addition, larger vacuoles containing morphologically intact material and partially degraded organelles (white arrow) suggestive of late autophagosomes are also seen. Numbers of autophagosomes per cell in 100 cell-sections per culture (n = 3) were 5-fold higher (p = 0.04) in Tnv-6-treated cultures than in corresponding controls (e).
