Dynamics of pathomorphological changes in the liver of rats at different stages of experimental alcohol damage

Abstract

Liver diseases represent one of the most common problems in gastroenterology. The liver, as the most important organ of metabolism, which plays a major role in anabolic and energy processes, takes part in the adaptive and compensatory reactions of the body under exogenous and endogenous adverse influences. Individual factors play a major role in the development of this disease, one of which is the duration of the effect of alcohol on the body. The duration of alcohol consumption affects the morpho-functional properties of the liver. When alcohol was given to the research animals, hypertrophic changes were seen in the linear dimensions of hepatocytes: in the 12th week of alcoholization, the nuclear area was 1.25 times larger, and the cytoplasmic area of hepatocytes was 1.16 times larger compared with the same indicators in the 6th week of alcoholization. Alcoholic hepatitis is characterized by protein-fatty degeneration, inflammatory lymphocytic infiltration, increase in the area of sinusoids and the size of hepatocytes, and, accordingly, the Vizotto coefficient (1.83 times in the 6th week and 2.10 times in the 12th week of the research). The alcohol consumption is accompanied by increase in the volume of the nucleus and cytoplasm of hepatocytes, decrease in the nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio with increase in pathohistological changes. With the lengthening of the terms of alcoholization, the number of binuclear hepatocytes decreased. Morphometric calculation of the number of fat cells per 100 hepatocytes showed that in the 12th week of the experiment, the number of fatty inclusions increased by 1.42 times, compared with 6 weeks of forced alcoholization. Fatty small- and large-droplet steatosis of hepatocytes was diffuse in nature. The duration of alcoholization also affects the liver vessels. The diameter of the central vein in the 6th week of the experiment was 1.52 times greater than in control rats, and 1.81 times in the 12th week of alcoholization. The bile ducts of rats of the experimental groups were also larger in diameter: by 37% after 6 weeks and 47% after 12 weeks of forced alcoholization. An increase in the area of the sinusoids and the diameter of the central vein indicates an impairment of the blood supply to the liver. The complexity of the structure of the liver and the diversity of its functions necessitate the use of a variety of diagnostic techniques and methodological approaches to assessing its activity in the normal condition, during a pathology. It will be promising to study the structure of the liver at the ultramicroscopic level of the effect of drugs on the treatment of alcoholic liver disease during different periods of alcoholization.

Keywords

• hepatocytes; ethanol; hypertrophy; hepatitis; sinusoids; liver vascular system