Morphological Study of the Alterations of Lymphocytes of Rat Peyer's Patch by Dehydration

Kim, Hyoung Tae

Abstract

Light and electron microscopic studies were performed to investigate the subcellular alterations of lymphocytes in rat Peyer's patches by dehydration. Sprague -Dawley rats weighing 210 to 230 gm were fed with dried diet and without water for 5, 7, 9, or 13 days. In light microscopy, the lymphocytes with very dark nucleus and/or cytoplasmic materials are shown in Peyer's patches of the dehydrated rats. The number of these lymphocytes were increased according to the degree of dehydration. Some dark nuclei were C or O shaped, and some cells with dark nucleus showed the light or empty cytoplasm as halo. The number of Tunel -positive lymphocytes were increased according to the duration of dehydration, and lymphocytes with Tunel -positive nucleus appeared in a group. some cells included the Tunel - positive nuclei and materials in their cytoplasm. Especially the cells of 13 day -dehydrated group had the strongly positive nucluei. In electron microscopy, the nuclei of lymphocytes shown very dark in light microscopy were condensed and/or fragmented. The aspects of nuclear condensations were various; simply condensed, rosary -like, crescentic or irregular. The destructions of cytoplasmic organelles were increased according to the degree of the dehydration. Many cells contained the phagosomes and necrotic and/or apoptosis -like cell debris, and the number of foreign body containing cells were increased according to the duration of the dehydration. These results showed that a number of lymphocytes were destructed by the necrosis and apoptosis -like mechanism morphologically, and the number of the cells containing these destructed cell debris are increased according to the duration of dehydration.