Biochemical and morphological changes induced by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in the rat liver cell plasma membrane

✍ Scribed by John B. Greig; Glenys Osborne

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 598 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0260-437X
• DOI: 10.1002/jat.2550010613

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The administration of single oral doses of 200 μg kg^−1^ of 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐dioxin to females of the outbred, Lac: P strain of rat results in the formation of hepatic multinucleate cells by cell fusion. Liver cell plasma membranes isolated 6 or 11 days after dosing show two distinct changes. The first is a decrease of the activity of K^+^‐Mg^2+^‐ATPase, which confirms histochemical observations. The second is the formation, in those animals showing a more severe intoxication, of a population of plasma membranes which are less dense than usual and which consist of extended membrane sheets. It is suggested that these alterations are consequent on a disturbance of lipid metabolism in the hepatic cells and that they represent early manifestations of the toxic process which leads to the formation of multinucleate cells.