[Electron microprobe ultrastructural localization of aluminium in hepatocytes (authors' transl)]

Liver tissue of a female patient who died of dialysis encephalopathy with aluminium intoxication was studied by electron microscopy and X-ray microprobe analysis. Aluminium was present in high concentrations in lipofuscin granules of hepatocytes and associated with severe lesions of most hepatic cells. The Küpffer cells, however, were normal. A similar study conducted in rats intoxicated by soluble aluminium salts showed that aluminium begins to concentrate in the lysosomes of hepatocytes, where it combines with phosphorus to form an insoluble salt.