Effect of long-term feeding with homogenized food on cytometric liver parameters of white rats in ontogenesis

The aim of the paper is to study the effect of long-term feeding with finely ground food on the dynamics of cytometric hepatocyte parameters in white rats in postnatal ontogenesis. Materials and Methods. On the 21st day of postnatal ontogenesis, 100 male white rats were divided into a control group and two experimental groups (experiment 1 and experiment 2). The animals of the control group were fed with natural food, while the animals of the experimental groups similar food (in terms of quality and quantity), but after careful mechanical grinding. To assess the reversibility of the homogenized food feeding, animals of experimental group 2 were fed natural food, as the control animals (days 120-240). The authors studied the liver, using cell morphometry of standard histological staining. They measured cross-sectional area of the nuclei and hepatocyte cytoplasm, calculated nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio, and counted the number of hepatocytes on the standard cross-sectional area, including binuclear hepatocytes. Results. It was revealed that long-term consumption of homogenized food affects the postnatal morphogenesis of the liver parenchyma. From the 21st to the 120th day, the growth rate of hepatocytes and the number of binuclear cells in the experimental animals exceeded those of the control animals, and from the 120th up to the 240th day, the growth rate of hepatocytes in the experimental animals was significantly inferior to that of the control animals. As a result, the number of cells per standard cutting area increased. In case of transition to normal food with natural mechanical properties (120th-240th days of postnatal ontogenesis) there was a tendency to the restoration of cytometric hepatocyte parameters. However, the authors did not observe complete recovery.