Abstract
The present report is concerned with changes in the pyroninophilic structures of the liver cell, as an early effect of carbon tetrachloride poisoning.
In the hepatic cells of various mammals and lower animals a peculiar type of granulation has repeatedly been observed and described. 1 These structures are characteristic in that they stain an intensive red with methyl green-pyronin (Pappenheimer's method). They vary in size and shape and may have the form of spheres, plump rods or lumps. They are often accumulated in the immediate neighborhood of the nucleus, but occasionally are spread over the entire cytoplasm. There is a clear relationship between the pyroninophilic granule content of liver cells and the nutritional state of the animal. In livers of fasting animals or in animals fed on carbohydrate or fat only the pyroninophilic structures disappear; in animals kept on a diet rich in proteins and products of protein cleavage they are especially numerous. The pyroninophilic granules can be digested by protein splitting ferments; they give positive Millon's, ninhydrin, diazo, and nitroprusside reactions. These facts led Berg to conclude that the pryoninophilic structures are paraplasmatic accumulatins of proteins with a substantial proportion of lower degradation products. According to this author changes in the size and number of pyroninophilic granules are an indication of a disturbed protein metabolism.
The views of Berg were corroborated by a number of investigators. 2 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 Various authors 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 lqave opposed his opinions. Kremer 15 held the pyroninophilic structures to be the products of biliary secretion. The histochemical studies of BrachetlG and of Biesele 17 made it probable that the structures observed by Berg contain ribonucleic acid as an essential component.
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