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Cytopathologic Changes in Liver Cord Cells of Arginine-Deficient Chicks¹

University of Connecticut, Storrs and University of Illinois, Urbana

The liver cord cells of chicks fed a purified 22% casein, low-magnesium, low-arginine diet showed cytopathologic changes characterized by a large intranuclear central basophilic body accompanied by hydrodystrophic changes of the nucleoplasm and the cytoplasm. Histochemical tests suggested that the large body consisted primarily of ribonucleic acid and represented a hypertrophied nucleolus. The hepatic lesion was correctable by arginine. There were no consistent lesions in the cerebellar Purkinje cells referrable to either arginine deficiency or the lowest level of magnesium fed. Supplementation with magnesium accentuated the hydrodystrophic alteration of the liver cord cells, but failed to correct the nucleolar hypertrophy. The latter lesion has been observed previously in rats fed toxic doses of thioacetamide or acetamide, but not in nutritional deficiencies.

The possible implications of these findings, with respect to the formation of basophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies and the role of arginine in the morphologic integrity of the nucleolus, are discussed.

² Present address: Beacon Milling Co., Cayuga, New York.

Manuscript received 31 October 1957.