scholarly journals Isolation of centrolobular and perilobular hepatocytes after phenobarbital treatment.

1975 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
J C Wanson ◽  
P Drochmans ◽  
C May ◽  
W Penasse ◽  
A Popowski

Daily phenobarbital (PB) injections, on 3-7 consecutive days, induce an intense proliferation of smooth endoplasmic reticulum (ER) associated with a decrease of the glucose-6-phosphatase activity. This situation first affects the centrolobular hepatocytes, enhancing the degree of liver lobule heterogeneity. This experimental model was used for isolation and further subfractionation of hepatocytes on Ficoll density gradients, as described in the preceding paper. Profiles of protein, DNA, RNA, glycogen, phosphorylase, and glucose-6-phosphatase were determined all along the gradient. Two liver cell populations were distinguished: (a) light hepatocytes (mean density 1.10) present the same morphological characteristics as centrolobular cells, i.e., an abundant smooth ER composed of tubular elements, numerous small mitochondria, and few glycogen particles; (b) heavy hepatocytes (mean density 1.14) are characterized by large and compact glycogen areas and prominent rough endoplasmic cisternae, as are the perilobular cells. After incubation in the Wachstein-Meisel medium, Centrolobular hepatocytes exhibit dispersed reaction sites of glucose-6-phosphatase activity, whereas perilobular cells present a continuous and intense reaction. Morphometric determinations were carried out for both cell populations. Centrolobular PB hepatocytes are considerably enlarged (mean diameter: 23.7 mum); perilobular hepatocytes have a significantly smaller mean diameter of 19.2 mum, which is close to the values of control liver cells.

1971 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Leskes ◽  
P. Siekevitz ◽  
G. E. Palade

The distribution of glucose-6-phosphatase activity in rat hepatocytes during a period of rapid endoplasmic reticulum differentiation (4 days before birth-1 day after birth) was studied by electron microscope cytochemistry. Techniques were devised to insure adequate morphological preservation, retain glucose-6-phosphatase activity, and control some other possible artifacts. At all stages examined the lead phosphate deposited by the cytochemical reaction is localized to the endoplasmic reticulum and the nuclear envelope. At 4 days before birth, when the enzyme specific activity is only a few per cent of the adult level, the lead deposit is present in only a few hepatocytes. In these cells a light deposit is seen throughout the entire rough-surfaced endoplasmic reticulum. At birth, when the specific activity of glucose-6-phosphatase is approximately equal to that of the adult, nearly all cells show a positive reaction for the enzyme and, again, the deposit is evenly distributed throughout the entire endoplasmic reticulum. By 24 hr postparturition all of the rough endoplasmic reticulum, and in addition the newly formed smooth endoplasmic reticulum, contains heavy lead deposits; enzyme activity at this stage is 250% of the adult level. These findings indicate that glucose-6-phosphatase develops simultaneously within all of the rough endoplasmic reticulum membranes of a given cell, although asynchronously in the hepatocyte population as a whole. In addition, the enzyme appears throughout the entire smooth endoplasmic reticulum as the membranes form during the first 24 hr after birth. The results suggest a lack of differentiation within the endoplasmic reticulum with respect to the distribution of glucose-6-phosphatase at the present level of resolution.


Author(s):  
Joanette S. Breslin ◽  
Robert R. Cardell

Considerable evidence suggests that hepatic smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) functions in both glycogen deposition and depletion and is closely associated with glycogen particles during both processes in the adult rodent liver. In this study we have investigated the time course of hepatic glycogen deposition and examined the association of SER with glycogen particles during fetal glycogen synthesis, i.e., from day 15 to day 19 of gestation (plug day = day 1).Livers were removed from fetal ICR mice and processed for either light (LM) and electron microscopy (EM) or biochemical determination of glycogen. Biochemical analysis of glycogen concentrations in each liver revealed an average of 0.1% glycogen in day 15 and day 16 fetal livers, 0.6% in those from day 17, 2.0% on day 18 and nearly 5.0% by day 19. Light microscopic analysis of periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) stained semi-thin (1.0μm) sections confirmed the presence of increasing amounts of glycogen beginning on day 16 and reaching a maximum on day 19 of gestation.


1981 ◽  
Vol 196 (2) ◽  
pp. 585-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
M B Cooper ◽  
M R Estall ◽  
B R Rabin

1. The phospholipid bilayer of intact vesicles from smooth endoplasmic reticulum is impermeable to macromolecules. Specific and non-specific proteinases were used to investigate the site of membrane proteins in the transverse plane of the bilayer. 2. When two proteinases were used in conjunction, denaturing effects additional to proteolysis were observed on cytochrome P-450 content and glucose 6-phosphatase activity which did not depend on the integrity of the phospholipid bilayer. 3. When lipid peroxidation was inhibited, these effects were not observed.


1987 ◽  
Vol 246 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Mvumbi ◽  
W Stalmans

1. Post-mitochondrial supernatants were prepared from the livers of 24 h-fasted rats. Upon centrifugation at high speed, the major part of the glycogen-synthase phosphatase activity sedimented with the microsomal fraction. However, two approaches showed that the enzyme was associated with residual glycogen rather than with vesicles of the endoplasmic reticulum. Indeed, the activity was entirely solubilized when the remaining glycogen was degraded either by glucagon treatment in vivo or by alpha-amylolysis in vitro. No evidence could be found for an association of glycogen-synthase phosphatase with the smooth endoplasmic reticulum, as isolated with the use of discontinuous sucrose gradients. 2. After solubilization by glucagon treatment in vivo, synthase phosphatase could be transferred to glycogen particles with very high affinity. Half-maximal binding occurred at a glycogen concentration of about 0.25 mg/ml, whereas glycogen synthase and phosphorylase required 1.5-2 mg/ml. 3. In gel-filtered extracts prepared from glycogen-depleted livers, the activation of glycogen synthase was not inhibited at all by phosphorylase alpha. The inhibition was restored when the liver homogenates were prepared in a glycogen-containing buffer. The effect was half-maximal at a glycogen concentration of about 0.25 mg/ml, and virtually complete at 1 mg/ml. These findings explain long-standing observations that in fasted animals the liver contains appreciable amounts of both synthase and phosphorylase in the active form.


1979 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
R N Margolis ◽  
R R Cardell ◽  
R T Curnow

A detailed investigation was conducted to determine the precise subcellular localization of the rate-limiting enzymes of hepatic glycogen metabolism (glycogen synthase and phosphorylase) and their regulatory enzymes (synthase phosphatase and phosphorylase phosphatase). Rat liver was homogenized and fractionated to produce soluble, rough and smooth microsomal fractions. Enzyme assays of the fractions were performed, and the results showed that glycogen synthase and phosphorylase were located in the soluble fraction of the livers. Synthase phosphatase and phosphorylase phosphatase activities were also present in soluble fractions, but were clearly identified in both rough and smooth microsomal fractions. It is suggested that the location of smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) within the cytosome forms a microenvironment within hepatocytes that establishes conditions necessary for glycogen synthesis (and degradation). Thus the location of SER in the cell determines regions of the hepatocyte that are rich in glycogen particles. Furthermore, the demonstration of the association of synthase phosphatase and phosphorylase phosphatase with membranes of SER may account for the close morphological association of SER with glycogen particles (i.e., disposition of SER membranes brings the membrane-bound regulatory enzymes in close contact with their substrates).


1973 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 426-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. HUGON ◽  
D. MAESTRACCI ◽  
D. MÉNARD

Adult Swiss ICR male mice were fed fructose or glucose for several days. Glucose-6-phosphatase activity in the duodenal and jejunal epithelium was measured by biochemical and cytophotometric means, and it was also localized cytochemically. The fructose diet stimulated glucose-6-phosphatase activity within 6 hr of feeding. The enzyme was stimulated more in the absorptive cells of the basal third than in those of the median and apical third of the villi. After 3 days of feeding of fructose, the smooth endoplasmic reticulum hypertrophied and occupied large areas in the absorptive cells. Lipoprotein spherules and polymorphic dense bodies were also observed. No such modifications were seen in glucose-fed animals.


1975 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Drochmans ◽  
J C Wanson ◽  
R Mosselmans

The recirculating perfusion of adult rat liver with a Ca-++-free Hanks' solution produces a release of the adhesiveness of cells and a cleaving of the desmosomes. The addition of collagenase and hyaluronidase to the perfusion medium leads to complete dissociation of the liver tissue into a mixture of isolated cells and cell cords in which the hepatocytes remain connected with specific junctional differentiations, namely the gap and tight junctions. Individual cells are released by submitting the suspension of cell trabeculae to a gentle rolling. The gap junctions are ruptured at least in one of the two adjacent cells and remain generally attached to the other cell taking with them a small portion of cytoplasm. This technique of isolation of hepatocytes yields about 60-65% of the parenchymal cells contained in a liver; endothelial cells and other cells of the connective tissue are not recovered. The ultrastructural preservation of the isolated hepatocytes is excellent and the glucose-6-phosphatase activity, confined to the endoplasmic reticulum, appears unaltered in most cells. Protein, DNA and RNA recovery in the preparations of isolated hepatocytes is satisfactory, amounting to 70% of that found in liver homogenate; glycogen, the most labile component examined, is partly lost or degraded during the manipulations. Cell diameters measured by different methods confirm the preservation of the original volume of the in situ hepatocytes and the presence of more than one type of parenchymal cell. By submitting this heterogeneous cell population to an isopycnic density gradient centrifugation, two types of hepatocytes can be distinguished: the light hepatocytes, with a mean diameter of 20.5 mum and a mean density of 1.10, are characterized by an extended smooth-walled endoplasmic reticulum entrapping dispersed alpha-glycogen particles; the heavy hepatocytes, with a mean diameter of 19.0 mum and a mean density of 1.14, present a relatively reduced compartment of smooth endoplasmic reticulum, but large accumulations of glycogen. It is suggested that the cell fraction of low density is enriched in centrolobular cells and the high density fraction in perilobular hepatocytes.


1971 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 515-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. HUGON ◽  
D. MAESTRACCI ◽  
D. MÉNARD

Glucose 6-phosphatase activity has been studied in the mouse intestinal tract using biochemical, cytochemical and cytophotometric methods. The enzyme is present in all segments of the digestive tract including the colon and is essentially localized in the absorbing cells. The maximum of activity is recorded in the middle jejunum. In each intestinal segment, the median part of the villi exhibits the highest reaction. In the epithelial cells, the enzyme is observed in the rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum and in the nuclear envelope. Cisternae of the Golgi apparatus are always negative. This enzyme appears to be a useful tool to study the regulating mechanisms operating in the differentiating epithelial cells of the intestine after an appropriate stimulation.


Author(s):  
John J. Wolosewick ◽  
John H. D. Bryan

Early in spermiogenesis the manchette is rapidly assembled in a distal direction from the nuclear-ring-densities. The association of vesicles of smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) and the manchette microtubules (MTS) has been reported. In the mouse, osmophilic densities at the distal ends of the manchette are the organizing centers (MTOCS), and are associated with the SER. Rapid MT assembly and the lack of rough ER suggests that there is an existing pool of MT protein. Colcemid potentiates the reaction of vinblastine with tubulin and was used in this investigation to detect this protein.


Author(s):  
F. G. Zaki

Addition of lithocholic acid (LCA), a naturally occurring bile acid in mammals, to a low protein diet fed to rats induced marked inflammatory reaction in the hepatic cells followed by hydropic degeneration and ductular cell proliferation. These changes were accompanied by dilatation and hyperplasia of the common bile duct and formation of “gallstones”. All these changes were reversible when LCA was withdrawn from the low protein diet except for the hardened gallstones which persisted.Electron microscopic studies revealed marked alterations in the hepatic cells. Early changes included disorganization, fragmentation of the rough endoplasmic reticulum and detachment of its ribosomes. Free ribosomes, either singly or arranged in small clusters were frequently seen in most of the hepatic cells. Vesiculation of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum was often encountered as early as one week after the administration of LCA (Fig. 1).


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