X. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY 



109 



The accumulation of fat in non-portal regions of the livers of choline- 

 deficient rats may become so great that it can no longer be stored in intra- 

 cellular form but eventually bursts the cells, thus permitting the fat 

 to escape from the confines of the cell membrane. Single tenuous septa are 

 formed by the compression and stretching exerted on cell membranes of 

 adjacent cells distended by large fat spherules. These septa are frequently 

 the sites of ruptures when fat accumulation in the cells becomes excessive. 



Fig. 8. A large fatty cyst in the liver of a male alcoholic (39 years old). In this 

 single, random section (5^), the nuclei of nine parenchymal cells which form the wall 

 of the cyst may be seen. The greatest diameter of the cyst in this section is over 90 ju. 

 If the cyst had been followed through serial sections, it is likelj' that the total num- 

 ber of cells in its wall would be found to total almost 50. Cells in walls of cysts are 

 usually more stretched and thinned than those illustrated here. Paraffin section; 

 hemato.x3'lin and eosin stain; X800. 



This nipture permits the adjacent fat spherules from each cell to fuse and 

 so become enclosed by the conjoined parent cells. As a result, the latter 

 actually form a small t^vo-celled epithelial cyst (Fig. 8), and these fattij 

 cysts'^^^ • ^^^ are the cytometaplastic links between the fatty and fibrotic 

 lesions of choline deficiency. Once formed, cysts may further increase in 

 size by fusing with other cysts or with fat-laden cells in the same manner 

 as the cysts were originally formed from individual cells. Eventually, large 

 cysts mpturing may cause damage to surrounding biliary or vascular 

 channels, and when this occurs fat may escape into the liunina of the latter 



"^ W. S. Ilartroft, Anat. Record. 106, 61-87 (1950). 



