Structural and ultrastructural studies on normal and bilharzial human liver following isoflurane and sevoflurane anaesthesia

Liver specimens from 30 adult female patients with normal liver function tests were examined. Half of the patients were normal and the other half had history of bilharziasis. All patients had chronic calcular cholecystitis and scheduled to undergo open cholecystectomy. After induction of anesthesia with fentanyl, propofol and vecuronium, anesthesia was maintained with 65% nitrous oxide in oxygen supplemented by propofol infusion as total intravenous anesthesia to the control group or by one minimum alveolar concentration [MAC] to patients of either isoflurane or sevoflurane groups. Approximately, 60 minutes after starting the maintenance anesthetic agents, a liver biopsy was taken from each patient and processed for light and electron microscopy. Similar structural and ultrastructural changes were detected in both normal and bilharzial liver specimens after the use of isoflurane and sevoflurane anesthetics. Those changes only differed in magnitude. They were in the form of focal sinusoidal dilatation, cellular swelling, nuclear and mitochondria1 degeneration, fragmentation of rough endoplasmic reticulum [rER], increased lysosomes, cytoplasmic vacuolation which may be partially or completely surrounded by membrane and may contain electron dense granular structures

Light and electron microscopic studies on skeletal muscle of mice infected with schistosoma mansoni

Skeletal muscles were collected from mice 12 weeks after being experimentally infected with Schistosoma mansoni [Sm]. Light microscopic [LM] examination revealed that some of the muscle fibers became disorganized, lost their transverse striation and sometimes contained abnormally centrally located chains of 4-6 nuclei. Moreover, groups of fat cells and inflammatory cells were present in between muscle fibers. Under the electron microscope [EM] the majority of muscle fibers suffered mild to severe ultrastructural changes. Mildly affected fibers showed only abrupt change in the direction of their myofibrils from longitudinal to oblique or even transverse. In severely affected muscle fibers the myofibrils were not only disoriented but also were severely disorganized, The Z lines were thickened and sarcoplasmic reticulum elements were abnormally dilated. Moreover, these severely affected fibers contained degenerated mitochondria and large secondary lysosomes. The ultrastructure of the blood capillaries was severely affected. The walls were thickened because of the increased thickness of both the endothelial cells and their basal laminae. There was also severe reduction of the capillary lumena, which were frequently traversed by intercommunicating endothelial-cell cytoplasmic processes. No granulomata were detected however, few degenerated ova were seen under the EM. The present results confirm at the EM level, for the first time, the reported skeletal muscle - myopathic changes in response to Sm infection