download PDF version - Dr Harold Hillman

Critique of the current consensus on cell structure of the nervous system(a) the specificity of the staining systems for neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytesand microglia, is not generally discussed. We showed that seven different classical neuroglialstains showed up such undoubted neurons as cerebellar Purkinje cells, medullary cranial nervenuclei and ventral horn cells;(b) the staining systems, which the histologists consider to be specific, wereoriginally tested on tissue sections, but do not appear in the literature to have been tested on thesame normal cells in tissue culture, which would establish that the histologists and tissueculturalists were looking at identical cells. It is possible that they were found not to show up thesame cells, or that the results of such experiments were not published. I have examined theliterature intensively on this subject;(c) it is difficult to know how to compare the histology of brain with that of the tissuein culture, because jobbing tissue culturalists know that when tissues are placed in the culturemedia, they change their morphology over a period of days. They often subsequently „dedifferentiate‟;(d) when one attempts to compare the biochemistry of the alleged different kinds ofneuroglia in culture, there is a serious problem. The cells are cultured in completely differentmedia, so that is not at all surprising that they should be expected to exhibit differentbiochemical properties. Obviously the biochemistry of cells in culture is totally dependent onthe chemistry of the culture media;(e) the immunologists have failed to compare the antigens present in cells in the brainand spinal cords cut freshly, with those present in the cells in tissue cultures of what are believedto be the same cells. The implication of the use of antibodies to seek out the location of antigensin the body is that there are different antigens in different adjacent neurons and neuroglial cells inthe same brains and spinal cords. One may ask, „Why does the body not produce antibodies toeach of the antigens present in each different kind of cells?‟ If it did, the central nervous systemwould be swirling with „specific‟ antibodies binding to its own antigens. This would create acellular Armageddon;27