PROTEIN IN DYING LIVER CELLS

¹ The Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge

1. The distribution of protein was studied in liver cells of rats poisoned by carbon tetrachloride.

2. The swollen hydropic cells, which are usually located in a midzonal position in the injured lobules, lose nearly all their cytoplasmic protein. These cells are filled by foamy vacuoles bounded by tenuous films of cytoplasm.

3. The centrally situated necrotic cells, on the other hand, retain abundant cytoplasmic protein, although the cytoplasm of these cells loses RNA and their nuclei show karyorrhexis and karyolysis.

4. The varying degree of injury to the liver cells may depend on initial cellular swelling; this may establish a gradient of ischæmia in the liver lobules with its maximum effect at the centre of the lobule where the cells are most severely damaged.

5. Autolysis of protein may require the prior absorption of water by intact osmotic systems in the partially damaged cells. This view would account for the substantial loss of protein from the swollen hydropic cells, and the persistence of protein in the more acutely injured necrotic elements in which osmosis is no longer possible.

Note:

We are very grateful to Mr. S. W. Patman for the photomicrography, and to Messrs. W. A. Mowlam, P. J. Hart and A. J. King for valuable technical assistance.