The ultrastructure of the liver cells during viral hepatitis is presented. The character of the noticed disturbances is variable with a rather patchy distribution, without any specificity of this disease. On the contrary remarkable and original patterns were observed at the level of the intercellular spaces; an important process of winding; presence of electronopaque grains (probably formed of biliary pigments), dilatation of the intercellular spaces between junctional complexes; joining of the cellular membranes with complete disappearance of intercellular spaces. All the disturbances in the ultrastructure of the intercellular spaces seem to help to clarify the understanding of the pathogenesis of jaundice in many cases of viral hepatitis. It may result from a sort of functional blocking of the “tight junctions” which, in its turn, may precede or be the consequence of some functional [8] perturbations, present all along the length of the intercellular spaces situated between Disse’s space and the biliary canaliculi.
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