Glucose-6-phosphatase Activity and Ultrastructures in Hepatocytes of Thioacetamide-treated Mice

ABSTRACT

To investigate the earlier cellular alterations(Glucose-6-Pase activity and morphologic features) caused by a hepatotoxin, thioacetamide (TAA), a single dose of the agent (200mg per kg of body weight) was given intraperitoneally to mice, which were sacrificed at intervals of 4, 8 or 16 hours after corresponding treatments. For histochemical study of glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) activity, unfixed frozen sections were incubation of the Wachstein and Meisel medium and stained. The smallest pieces of liver tissue were fixed in glutaraldehyde and osmic acid, and stained by the routine electron-microscopic techniques. Some pieces of liver were fixed in 10% formalin, embedded in paraffin, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. There was a rapid and progressive loss of G6Pase activity, in an orderly time sequence, in the experimental group. There were also morphologic changes loss of cytoplasmic basophilia, cell infiltration and necrosis in the centrilobular and intermediate zones, and an increase of sER, small vesicles and ribosomes in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes, the marked changes of nuclei and nucleoli, and a slight increase of lipid droplets in the cytoplasm at 16 hours after intoxication. The correlation between these cellular alterations was discussed in view of mechanisms in the hepatotoxic action.