Peliosis Hepatis-like Lesion in Aging Rats

Abstract

Abstract. The incidence of peliosis hepatis-like lesions in two-year-old Charles River-CD Sprague-Dawley rats (Charles River Breeding Laboratories, Wilmington, MA) was almost twice as high in males as females. Blood lakes developed from progressive expansion of sinusoids with destruction of the hepatic cell cords. The endothelial processes of the blood lakes had edematous swelling, vesiculation, and denudation. The microvilli of hepatocytes became swollen, blunted, and sloughed where the endothelial processes were disrupted. Subsequently, the hepatocytes were exposed directly to circulating blood cells and had degenerative changes with accumulation of red blood cells in the cytoplasm.The membrane-bound cysts were observed with the blood lakes and were bounded with atrophic hepatocytes or membranous wall extending to the Disse's space of adjacent hepatocytes. The cysts were filled with proteinaceous fluid, fibrin, and a few red blood cells. The wall of membrane-bound cysts consisted of endothelial processes extending from the endothelial cells of adjacent hepatocytes. The wall appeared to develop from adhesion of endothelial processes surrounding sinusoidal spaces of the hepatocytes following lysis of atrophic hepatocytes.Peliosis hepatis in the liver of man is a rare lesion characterized by multiple cystic spaces filled with blood. Gross diagnosis is simple due to the unique appearance of the lesion which contains tiny dark-red spaces filled with fluid or clotted blood. The lesion can be recognized readily through the intact capsule as well as on the cut surface [22]. The condition also has been called "telangiectasia hepatis disseminata" [ 171, "Leberblutung" [27], "multiple Leberblutung" [3 11, and "angiomatosis hepatis" [2 11. Peliosis hepatis has been observed in patients with chronic wasting diseases such as tuberculosis or cancer [7,15,22, 391. Recently, the incidence of peliosis hepatis has increased significantly in patients who developed hepatic neoplasms after taking oral contraceptives or anabolic androgenic steroids for long periods of time [ 16, 23, 28, 301. A few reports described extrahepatic peliosis in the spleen [ 15, 241, lymph nodes [22], and bone marrow [22].A peliosis hepatis-like lesion has been described in experimental animals exposed to virus [4] [35]. Peliosis and telangiectatic lesions were relatively common in the liver of old rats [5, 111 but etiology and pathogenesis are unknown. In an attempt to elucidate the morphogenesis of peliosis hepatis and membrane-bound cysts containing proteinaceous fluid, the livers of old rats were examined in detail by electron microscopy. Materials and MethodsTwo-year-old control rats (Charles River-CD Sprague-Dawley), which were used in experiments for safety evaluation of chemicals between 1968 and 1980 at Haskell Laboratory, were selected randomly to study peliosis hepatis. The rats, obtained as weanlings from a commercial breeder (Charles River Breeding Laboratories, Wilmington, MA), were housed two to a suspended stainless steel cage and fed a b...

Peliosis hepatis and telangiectasis in 18 cats

“…Peliosis hepatis is characterised by multiple blood-filled cysts in the liver. It was first described in man, and similar lesions have been reported in cattle (Anderson 1955a), rats (Lee 1983), dogs (Inoue and others 1988) as well as one cat (Torry and Walton 1975). The histological features in the nine cases of peliosis in cats reported here are similar to those reported previously in a cat (Torry and Walton 1975), in dogs (Inoue and others 1988), rats (Lee 1983) and man (Yanoff and Rawson 1964).…”

“…In man, liver lesions may occur occasionally, in addition to more commonly occurring lesions in other organs, in the Rendu-Osler-Weber syndrome (Patrick and McGhee 1980). Vascular lesions also occur in tissues other than the liver in ageing rats with peliosis hepatis (Lee 1983). The incidence of liver lesions in ageing rats is greater in males than females; no sex predisposition was obvious in the cases reported here.…”

“…Peliosis hepatis is characterised by multiple blood-filled cysts in the liver. It is uncommon but was first described in man; similar lesions have since been reported in cattle (Anderson 1955a,b), rats (Lee 1983) and more recently in dogs (Inoue and others 1988). A single case has been reported previously in a cat (Torry and Walton 1975).…”

“…In man, the lesions of peliosis hepatis may occur in childhood (Usatin and Wigger 1976) while in rats (Lee 1983) and in cattle (Anderson 1955b) the incidence of peliosis and telangiectasis, respectively, increases with ageing. One of the cases reported here occurred as early as one week old while others were up to 14 years old and no particular age incidence was obvious.…”

CHD4-regulated plasmin activation impacts lymphovenous hemostasis and hepatic vascular integrity

“…Likewise, peliosis hepatis is a rare liver disease with unknown causes and with phenotypes resembling those seen in Chd4 fl/fl Lyve1-Cre + embryos, including hepatic lesions and sinusoidal dilation that can progress to spontaneous rupture, hemorrhage, and death (45). Lymphatic dysfunction characterized by tissue edema is also observed in rodents and patients with peliosis hepatis (46)(47)(48). In light of our current study, we propose that excessive plasmin activity should be investigated as a pathogenic mediator of this and other diseases characterized by hepatic sinusoidal rupture and lymphedema.…”