Liver ultrastructure during acute stress.

An ultrastructural, morphologic and histochemical study was made on the livers of rats exposed to eight different acute stressors: fasting, cortisol injecions, reserpine injections, restraint, spinal cord transection, immersion in hot water, exposure to cold and forced muscular exercise in a revolving drum. After 48 hours of exposure to stress, electron microscopy of the liver revealed rough endoplasmic reticulum fragmentation and dilatation, glycogen depletion, and mitochondrial enlargment. The most striking change, however, was an increase in the number and size of autophagic vacuoles which were limited by single or multiple membranes. A cytochemical study revealed that in the former case, the vacuolar membranes did not show a glucose-6-phosphatase positive reaction, whereas they did in the latter case. The vacuoles contained acid phosphatase positive material as well as organelles in various stages of degradation. Following exposure to most of the stressors, a marked increase of plasma corticosterone was noted, with a lowered rectal temperature and the appearance of the typical stress triad (adrenal hypertrophy, thymicolymphatic involution and gastrointestinal ulcers). The severity of the morphologic changes appeared to parallel the degree of hypothermia caused by the stressor. The results suggest that autophagy in the liver may be an adaptive response to stressors at the subcellular level.