AUTOPHAGY AND APOPTOSIS IN LIVER DURING THE PRE-HEMOLYTIC PHASE OF CHRONIC COPPER POISONING IN SHEEP

Fine structural changes in the liver during the prehaemolytic phase of chronic Cu poisoning in sheep were investigated in biopsy and post-mortem samples obtained from 24 Finn-Dorset × Suffolk ewe lambs. From the beginning of the prehaemolytic phase excessive accumulation of Cu was accompanied by sublethal injury to liver parenchymal cells, reflected by changes in the endoplasmic reticulum and an increase in the numbers of autophagic vacuoles. Towards the later stages of the prehaemolytic phase there was a high incidence of cell death and apoptosis. © 1979.