Histopathological studies on experimental marine toxin poisoning. I. Ultrastructural changes in the small intestine and liver of suckling mice induced by dinophysistoxin-1 and pectenotoxin-1.

Sequential ultrastructural changes were studied in mouse digestive organs after i.p. injections of dinophysistoxin-1 and pectenotoxin-1, causative agents of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning. Dinophysistoxin-1, a diarrheagenic substance, produced severe mucosal injuries in the small intestine within 1 hr after the administration of the toxin. The injuries were divided into 3 consecutive stages: extravasation of villi vessels, degeneration of absorptive epithelium and desquamation of the degenerated epithelium from the lamina propria. In contrast to dinophysistoxin-1, pectenotoxin-1, a non-diarrheagenic toxin from diarrhetic shellfish poisoning causative mussels, resulted in no abnormalities in the small intestine, but did cause characteristic liver injuries. Within 1 hr after the injection of pectenotoxin-1 numerous non-fatty vacuoles appeared in the hepatocytes around the periportal regions of the hepatic lobules. Electron microscopic observations with colloidal iron demonstrated that these vacuoles originated from invaginated plasma membranes of the hepatocytes.