The assessment of protein metabolism in nutria hepatocytes in postnatal ontogenesis

The parameters of the nucleolar organizer regions activity and the total protein content in hepatocytes of female and male nutria in postnatal ontogenesis were studied. The objects of the study were 30 clinically healthy standard color female and male nutria of cage keeping at the age of 1 day, 2 months, 4.5 months, 7.5 months and 12 months. It was found that AgNOR in the nuclei of nutria hepatocytes had had a rounded shape or close to it, and their number ranges from 1 to 2, while 2 AgNOR zones were much less common. The analysis of AgNOR parameters showed that the maximum amount of AgNOR in hepatocyte nuclei had been detected at the age of 4.5 months, while the total AgNOR area at this age, on the contrary, had minimum values. The minimum amount of AgNOR in hepatocyte nuclei in female nutria is recorded at the age of 7.5 months, and in males at the age of 12 months, while the maximum total AgNOR area in female nutria was at the age of 2 months, and in males at 12 months. The proportion of the total area of AgNOR from the total area of the nucleus of hepatocytes in females and males had the maximum values at 2 months of age, and the maximum in females - at 7.5 and in males - at 4.5 months. An increase in the total protein of hepatocytes in male nutria was observed at the age of 7.5 months, and in females - at 12 months, while the lowest values of this indicator were found in individuals of both sexes at 2 months of age. From the first day to 4.5 months of life, female and male nutria have the same age dynamics of the AgNOR parameters and optical density of the total protein in hepatocytes, and at 7.5 and 12 months of age, the values of these indicators acquire different age dynamics.