title: The intracellular lumen: origin, role and implications of a cytoplasmic neostructure.
abstract: Ultrastructurally, the intracellular lumen appears as a more or less spherical cavity with osmiophilic substance, bordered with microvilli and surrounded by a filamentous network. Epithelial cancer cells, both healthy cultured and hormonally stimulated in vivo, often present such structures, which probably result from a dysfunction of the Golgi apparatus and cytoskeleton. This characterizes an abortive secretory process, which may be the consequence of a great hormonal sensitivity of the cells or of a loss of differentiation criteria when they are cancerous or isolated for culture.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D002469:Cell Separation; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004848:Epithelium / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005333:Fetus; D006056:Golgi Apparatus / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006728:Hormones / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007425:Intracellular Membranes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008871:Microvilli / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones