Ultrastructure of turkey hepatocytes

Abstract

Hepatocytes of normal male and female turkey livers perfused in situ with a fixative containing 4% glutaraldehyde in 0.05 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) were examined by electron microscopy. The hepatocytes, arranged in two-cell-layered plates, were polygonal and had three spatially different surfaces. The vascular surface was formed by microvilli, which at times projected into the sinusoids past the space of Disse. The interhepatocytic surfaces were closely applied and contained an occasional gap junction. The biliary surface participated in bile canaliculus formation and had short, regular microvilli. Tight junctions and adherens junctions were close to the canalicular lumen. The hepatocyte nucleus was located towards the vascular pole. The cytoplasm of hepatocytes of the females had many lipid droplets. The pleomorphic mitochondria, with relatively electron dense matrices were surrounded by one or, rarely, two profiles of flattened rER. Golgi complex was often observed in the vicinity of the nucleus, whereas the centrioles were located in the pericanalicular area of the biliary pole, which was rich in microtubules. These microtubules were extremely long, at times covering a substantial distance between the Golgi complex and bile canaliculi; microtubules occasionally formed bundles near the biliary pole. Small vesicles in close proximity of the microtubules were frequently observed. The spatial relationship between Golgi complex, microtubules, vesicles, and centrioles at the biliary pole of the hepatocyte appears to support the concept that the bile secretory mechanism in avian hepatocytes may involve a centrioles-microtubules-vesicles-Golgi complex system.

Ultrastructure of in situ perfusion‐fixed avian liver, with special reference to structure of the sinusoids

“…It is possible that this intercalated cell is the avian equivalent of the "pit" cell (natural killer lymphocyte) described in rat and human liver by Bouwens and Wisse (1992); however, the cytoplasm of the intercalated cells seen in our birds appeared to lack the dense bodies described in the pit cells. The electron micrographs of turkey liver published by Bhatnagar and Singh (1982) also showed small cells with clear cytoplasm, interposed between hepatocytes in just the same manner as the intercalated cells in our chickens, although those authors did not mention these cells. We feel that to equate these cells with pit cells would not at this stage be justified without detailed immunocytochemical characterisation.…”

“…The method has also been applied in ultrastructural studies of normal chicken liver (Ohata et al, 1982;Ohata and Ito, 1986) and turkey (Bhatnagar et al, 1981;Bhatnagar and Singh, 1982). Despite the advantages of perfusion through portal vein using fine catheters there are some disadvantages which reduce the feasibility of the method.…”

“…A relatively detailed description of the ultrastructure of the liver parenchyma of the immature fowl was given by Hodges (1972Hodges ( , 1974, who chose the immature bird to avoid morphological complications which could have been caused by the process of yolk lipoprotein formation in hepatocytes. Bhatnagar and Singh (1982) gave a detailed description of the ultrastructure of turkey liver which had been fixed by portal vein perfusion. Ohata et al (1982) and Ohata and Ito (1986) described the characteristics of avian sinusoidal cells with some additional studies to characterise so-called extrasinusoidal macrophages.…”

HISTO-MORPHOMETRIC AND HISTOCHEMICAL COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LIVER IN COLLARD DOVE (Frivaldszky), RUDDY SHELDUCK (Pallas) IN SOUTH IRAQ.

“…2, 4, 12). These results accord with (12,13,14,15) they revealed that radiating plates of hepatocytes are two cells thick in the chicken, fowl, american coot bird and turkey, respectively and disagreement with (16), they founded that hepatocytes cords consisted of one cell thickness and little birds had either one or two cells and with (12,14,17) who observed that hepatocytes plates composed of (1-2) cells in thickness in Pintail duck and Ruffed grouse. The hepatocytes in Collard Dove was more compact in Ruddy Shelduck (Fig.…”

Exoerythrocytic development of Plasmodium gallinaceum in the White Leghorn chicken

“…The molecular basis for the different patterns of dissemination and host cell preference of avian versus mammalian malaria species is unknown. With minor exceptions, the architecture of the avian liver lobule (Elias and Bengelsdorf, 1952;Hickey and Elias, 1954;Purton, 1969a, b;Hodges, 1972Hodges, , 1974Purton, 1976;Yamashiro and Bast, 1978;McLelland, 1979;Bhatnagar et al, 1980;Bhatnagar and Singh, 1982;Ohata et al, 1982;Ohata and Ito, 1986;Abdelwahab, 1987;Ghoddusi and Kelly, 2004) is essentially identical to that of humans and most mammals (Jones and Spring-Mills, 1984;Gumucio et al, 1994). Further, birds generally synthesize the same classes of glycosaminoglycans as mammals (Owens and Wagner, 1992), rendering the possibility unlikely that these host factors are responsible for the lack of selective targeting of P. gallinaceum sporozoites to the liver.…”