Within 3.5 to 4 hours after thionine administration, numerous small osmiophilic bodies, liposomes, appear in the endoplasmic reticulum of the liver cells. By fusion, the liposomes lead to the formation of larger collections of fat, giant liposomes. Adenine administration to ethionine-treated rats removes the liposomes from the hepatocytes and causes the transitory appearance of osmiophilic droplets in the sinusoidal space of Disse. The characteristic disaggregation of hepatic polysomes seen in the liver after ethionine administration is corrected by the injection of adenine.Ethionine, the ethyl analogue of methionine (9), when administered to female rats, induces a number of biochemical lesions in the liver, the sequence of which is illustrated below (12-14, 26, 27 The key lesion in this sequence is a rapid and marked decrease in the level of hepatic ATP, which results from the trapping of the adenine moiety of ATP consequent upon the activation of ethionine to S-adenosylethionine. It has been shown, in fact, that the fall in hepatic ATP, the ethionine (12-14, 26, 28). In this report we present, in preliminary form, findings of early ultrastructural changes in the liver ceil caused by ethionine, and evidence that these changes, once established, can be reversed by the administration of adenine.591 on

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