Structural and ultrastructural hepatic changes in experimental canine leishmaniasis

Six 4 month-old beagles were inoculated with Leishmania donovani infantum, three of them intraperitoneally (Group A) and the other three intravenously (Group B). The animals from Group A were killed 109, 433 and 592 days after inoculation and animals from Group B 109, 171 and 334 after inoculation. The liver of each of them was examined by means of light and electron microscopy. The lesions observed in both groups were very similar, but developed more rapidly in Group B. A chronic hepatitis appeared due to infection, characterized by the presence of multiple intralobular granulomas and portal inflammatory infiltrates consisting of lymphocytes, plasmocytes and macrophages with a variable number of amastigotes. The Kupffer cells were hyperplastic and contained parasites in their cytoplasm. Gradually the hepatocytes developed a progressive cellular swelling, which during the end-stages of the process showed itself with severe nuclear degeneration, disintegration of cytoplasmic organelles, enlargement of the cytoplasmic matrix and disruption of the plasma membranes, leading to cytolysis.