Light optical and Ultrastructural Characteristics of the Maral Liver with Chronic Dicrocoeliasis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dicrocoeliasis is caused by trematode Dicrocoelium lanceatum from the family Dicrocoeliidae, a parasite in the bile ducts of the liver of domestic and wild animals. Dicrocoeliasis mainly affects sheep, cattle, camels, zebu, deer, fallow deer, argali, less often – horses, donkeys, dogs, rabbits, hares and bears, as well as humans. Dicrocoeliasis of ruminants is widespread across the whole Kazakhstan. Invasive diseases represent a significant obstacle in the development of domestic maral breeding, among which trematodoses, and particularly dicrocoeliasis of maral play a major role.

AIM: The aim of the research was to study the influence of dicrocoelia on the ultrastructural organization of the liver of maral.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: For examination under electron microscope, biopsy pieces of liver tissue of maral were fixed in 2.5% solution of glutaraldehyde with post-fixation in 1% solution of osmium tetroxide, conducted according to a conventional method, and enclosed in epon. Semi-thin and ultra-thin sections were prepared on the ultra-microtome Leica. Semi-thin sections were stained with methylene blue, azure 2, and studied at a high-resolution light optical level. The ultra-thin sections were contrasted with uranyl acetate and lead citrate according Reynolds method and examined under electron microscope Libra 120 (C. Zeiss).

RESULTS: The light optical examination of half-thin sections revealed that the morphological pattern of pathological changes in liver tissue was polymorphic, even within a single hepatic lobe.

CONCLUSIONS: In the liver of maral infected with chronic dicrocoeliasis, dystrophic and destructive pathological changes developed in all the cellular structures of the hepatic lobules: In the form of plethora and vast enlargement of sinusoids, vacuolar and lipodegeneration of hepatocytes, destruction of the hepatic tissue with edema, hemorrhages, in the appearance of cells associated with inflammation, and the deposition of hematin crystals.