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closeCorrecton regarding Ref 23 and fixable dextran
Posted by spearmanp on 11 Aug 2013 at 20:35 GMT
The authors suggest that Chen et al. (ref 23) probably used non-fixable dextran. In our paper methods section we clearly state that the TR-dextran was fixable dextran. We appreciate that the authors' interpretation here is different, but the differences between our findings cannot be attributed to the contention that the wrong type of dextran was used. Also, we note that cationized ferritin has an external diameter of 12 nm, so the inability of cationized ferritin to demonstrate connections with the majority of VCCs would suggest that unstained VCCs had either closed connections to the PM or connections of less than 12 nm . We agree with the authors here that the VCC remains a somewhat perplexing compartment deserving of additional study, and that some VCCs demonstrate connections to the PM. However, our findings support the fact that the majority of VCCs do not demonstrate such connections and are effectively closed to antibodies and small molecules.