| Abstract: | A study was made of the morphological status of hepatocytes, the antioxidant activity of lipids and composition of phospholipids, and dehydrogenase activity in the liver of field mice taken from seven regions of the Chernobyl A.P.S. zone with different levels of contamination in 1987. There observed multiple types of destructive damages to the organ; depletion of liver lipids by antioxidants; diminution of phospholipids within the total lipid level; considerable increase in the phosphatidyl choline/phosphatidyl ethanolamine ratio and in the relative content of phospholipid lysoforms; and inhibition of dehydration processes. In the absence of a strict correlation between the changes in the biophysical and biochemical parameters or between the severity of degenerative changes in hepatocytes and the level of external irradiation, certain relationship was followed up between liver lipid depletion by antioxidants, inhibition of dehydration processes and the number of wild rodents which developed dystrophic changes in the organ. These structural and functional changes were found in the liver of wild rodents taken from all the regions: this indicated a considerable sensitivity of the parameters of the regulatory cell systems and hepatocytes to the effect of technogenic contamination. |
