ROLE OF FAT-STORING CELLS IN SCHISTOSOMAL HEPATIC-FIBROSIS OF MICE

The involvement of fat-storing cells (FSC) in hepatic schistosomal granuloma was investigated in mice infected with Schistosoma mansoni cercariae. After infection, 24 animals were treated with s.c. injections of vitamin A in a total dose of 210,000 IU given twice a week for 3 weeks. Two other groups of 24 animals each were: a) non-infected vitamin A-treated animals and (b) untreated infected controls. Animals from all groups were killed at weekly intervals from the 5th through the 10th week following infection. Pieces of liver were examined by light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. In all vitamin A-treated animals, FSC disclosed prominent cytoplasmic fat droplets, which permitted their prompt identification in the light and in the electron microscope. They were found in large numbers as a constituent of periovular granulomas. In infected controls, FSC were not identified in granulomas, possibly because lipid droplets disappeared during differentiation to the fibroblastic phenotype. FSC also appeared within areas of septal fibrosis. These data suggest that FSC play an important part in focal porto-hepatic fibrosis during granuloma formation around S. mansoni eggs in the liver of mice.