Cadmium toxicity in perinatal rat hepatocytes: electron microscopy, X-ray microanalysis, and morphometric analysis

Effects of cadmium on the fetal and postnatal rat hepatocytes were studied with an electron microscope and an X-ray microanalyzer. Pregnant and lactating Wistar rat dams at 15 and 21 days of pregnancy and at 3 days after delivery received intraperitoneal injections of cadmium sulfate (1 mg/kg body weight) for 3 days. On the day following the last injection, the livers were isolated from the fetal and suckling rats and provided for electron microscopy. The livers from the untreated fetal and newborn rats served as control. Large bile canaliculi, which were formed by five or more hepatocytes, were frequently observed in the cadmium-treated perinatal rat livers. The intercellular space between each adjacent hepatocyte was widened. By X-ray microanalysis, cadmium peaks were preferentially detected out from intramitochondrial granules of the cadmium-treated hepatocytes. By morphometric analysis, the increase both in the mitochondria volume and in the number of intramitochondrial granules was evident in the cadmium-treated hepatocytes when compared to those of control. These data suggest the preferential accumulation of cadmium in mitochondria of the hepatocytes interferes with the morphogenesis of the perinatal rat liver.