Figure 6.

Ultrastructural features of experimental chronic alcohol-induced liver injury, with or without myriocin treatment. Liver tissue from adult male Long Evans rats that were fed for 8 weeks with isocaloric Lieber-diCarli diets containing 0% or 37% ethanol and treated with vehicle or myriocin by i.p. injection during the last 5 weeks of the experiment. Liver tissues were fixed in Karnovsky's, post-fixed in osmium tetroxide, and embedded in resin. Ultra-thin (50–60 nm) sections were contrasted with uranyl acetate and lead citrate and examined by transmission electron microscopy. (a) Control + vehicle and (b) control + myriocin treated livers exhibited regular parallel organized endoplasmic reticulum (ER) (er) in close association with mitochondria (m). (c) Ethanol + vehicle treated livers exhibited irregularly arranged and disrupted ER, striking variability in mitochondrial size and shape with enlargement and disruption of the normal cristae in ethanol-exposed livers. (d) Ethanol + myriocin treated livers showing nearly normal ER morphology, reduced lipid droplets, and normalized mitochondria size and distribution in ethanol+myriocin treated livers (L, lipid droplet). (n, nucleus), (Original magnifications: a−d = ×18 000).