Populations of megahepatocytes and minihepatocytes and their components in livers of old rats.
Principally, morphometric investigations of the liver refer to mononuclear hepatocytes. They do not consider the polyploidy nor the bi- and multinuclearity of mainly old organs. Using a specially developed method we determined volume density, volume and number of cell components of individual hepatocytes. In relation to the mean volume of hepatocytes of 24 and 27 months old female Wistar rats (14,305.2 +/- 1,708.6 micronsM3 and 17,091.1 +/- 1,405.5 micronsM3, respectively) the characteristic quantitative values of minihepatocytes (16.7-48.9% of the mean value) and of megahepatocytes (140.2-204.8% of the mean value) are demonstrated.
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D003584:Cytological Techniques; D005260:Female; D008099:Liver / Q000166:cytology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008297:Male; D008930:Mitochondria, Liver / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains