Distribution of organelles and membranes between hepatocytes and nonhepatocytes in the rat liver parenchyma. A stereological study.

作者：A Blouin, R P Bolender, Ewald R. Weibel · 发表于：The Journal of Cell Biology · 年份：1977 · DOI：10.1083/jcb.72.2.441 · 被引用次数：862 · 研究领域：Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment、Drug Transport and Resistance Mechanisms、Mitochondrial Function and Pathology

When biochemical studies on the liver are interpreted, the cells of the sinusoidal area frequently receive little attention because, compared to hepatocytes, their contribution to subcellular fractions is assumed insignificant. A systematic stereological analysis of liver parenchyma was therefore performed in order to determine the distribution of organelles and membranes between hepatocytic and nonhepatocytic cells, namely endothelial, Kupffer, and fat-storing cells. The livers were fixed by vascular perfusion and the data were corrected for systematic errors dur to section thickness and compression. The extracellular space compartment includes the lumina of sinusoids (10.6%), the space of Disse (4.9%), and the bile canaliculi (0.4%). Hepatocytes constitute 78% of parenchymal volume; the nonhepatocytes account for 6.3% and consist of 2.8% endothelial cells, 2.1% Kupffer cells, and 1.4% fat-storing cells. The nonhepatocytes contribute 55% of the volume of lipid droplets in the liver, 43% of the lysosomes, and 1.2% of the mitochondria. Although the nonhepatocytes account for only 8% of the total surface area of parenchymal membranes, they contain 26.5% of all the plasma membranes, 32.4% of the lysosomal membranes, 15.1% of the Golgi apparatus 6.4% of the endoplasmic reticulum, and 2.4% of the mitochondrial membranes. The data demonstrate the extent to which nonhepatocytic organelles can potentially contaminate subcellular fractions used for biochemical studies. Particularly im...