An Electron Microscopic Study of Lipoprotein Production and Release by the Isolated Perfused Rat Liver.

Abstract

Summary Dense osmiophilic bodies, 300-800 Å in diameter, appear in isolated rat livers perfused with high concentrations of linoleic acid. After 2 minutes of perfusion, these bodies are very numerous in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus. They are first seen in significant numbers in the space of Disse at 5 minutes. Similar granules are present in the final media of livers perfused with fatty acid and the d < 1.006 fraction of human and rat sera. The data suggest that these bodies are very low density lipoprotein and indicate that the isolated perfused liver is an excellent experimental system for morphological study of lipoprotein metabolism.