The history of the golgi apparatus in neurones from its discovery in 1898 to electron microscopy

We celebrate in 1998 the centenary of the discovery of the Golgi apparatus. Neurones have played a special role in the history of this cell organelle, primarily because the endocellular apparatus was discovered in nerve cells by Camillo Golgi when he was studying the cerebellum of an owl. In the following years, the apparatus of the nerve cell represented the prototype of this cell component which, however, was soon also detected in many other cell types. During the 1920s and 1930s the original idea of a Golgi endocellular “network” was refused and research was focused on the constituents and function of the organelle, using various tissues and techniques. However, the real existence of the apparatus was seriously questioned until the organelle was finally identified by electron microscopy in the mid-1950s. The studies performed on nerve cells during these decades is briefly reviewed here.