Transformation of corticosterone in the foetal and placental compartments of the rat

3H-Corticosterone was administered subcutaneously in vivo and in situ to 32 rat foetuses at 16–18 days of gestation. 30 min after the injection, 11% of the administered dose was localized in the liver tissue, 5% in the lungs, 3% in the intestines and 5% in the placenta. The foetal tissues were separated into different subcellular fractions: I) nucleo-fibrillar, II) mitochondrial-microsomal, and III) cytosol. It was observed that corticosterone was extensively metabolized in all three of these subcellular fractions. The following metabolites were identified in a radiochemically pure form: 11-dehydrocorticosterone, 5α-dihydrocorticosterone, tetrahydrocorticosterone, 5α-tetrahydrocorticosterone. Quantitative evaluation of the corticosterone metabolites showed that the greatest part of these steroids consisted of dihydro- and tetrahydrocorticosterone derivatives, principally with a 5α configuration.

In the liver tissues, 0.5 % of the radioactive material was found in a conjugated form, mainly as ester sulphates. The radioactive material liberated after solvolysis of these conjugates was tentatively identified as corticosterone, 5α-dihydrocorticosterone and 5α-tetrahydrocorticosterone.

An ultrastructural study of the liver in Indian childhood cirrhosis with particular reference to the structure of cytoplasmic hyaline

Ultrastructural features of the liver in eight cases of Indian childhood cirrhosis, a fatal and elusive liver disease in India, have been described. Severe parenchymal damage, diffuse creeping fibrosis, and other light microscopic alterations, including the frequent presence of cytoplasmic hyaline, reported earlier are confirmed in the present study. The hyaline is predominantly comprised of tangled masses of fibrils and some electron-dense particles possibly derived from endoplasmic reticulum. The morphological features of this hyaline are identical to those of alcoholic hyaline described by Biava and Smuckler. Mitochondria do not seem to participate in the structural evolution of hyaline.

Synovial giant cells in rheumatoid arthritis and other joint diseases

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