Ultrastructural changes in livers of tumour bearing rats.

An ultrastructural study of the livers of rats bearing transplanted mammary carcinomata from 4 to 12 weeks after transplantation revealed changes mainly in cytoplasmic structure of hepatocytes. The significant findings were pleomorphism of mitochondria, presence of large number of myelin figures, marked increase in microbodies, dilatation of rough endoplasmic reticulum, proliferation of smooth endoplasmic reticulum, intracytoplasmic cholesterol clefts and absence of increase in lysosomes. These alterations have been compared with that of others who have used different animal model systems to study the effect of tumour in livers of host. Centrioles in Küpffer cells are described for the first time in this study.