vanadocyte

English

Etymology

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Noun

vanadocyte (plural vanadocytes)

1. The blood cell of sea squirts, containing hemovanadin rather than hemoglobin.
   • 1939, DA Webb, Journal of Experimental Biology, volume 16, page 499:

     Henze (1913 a) was able to localize the vanadium chromogen in certain blood cells which he designated as morulae (Maulbeerformen). […] This type of cell, which, as will be shown later, is probably confined to the Ascidiidae and Perophoridae, is hereinafter referred to as a "vanadocyte", in order to distinguish it from other types of morulae which do not possess the properties just described.

   • 2012, Poul Schever, Marine Natural Products V3: Chemical And Biological Perspectives:

     Such a solution would be expected to be an extremely complex mixture of molecules with possibility of artifact formation between vanadocyte vanadium and ligands originating from other cell types.

   • 2013, F. Pietra, A Secret World: Natural Products of Marine Life, page 165:

     Vanadium can be stored in such an unusual form because of a reducing and complexing bright yellow pigment called tunichrome-B1, which is found in active blood cells called vanadocytes.