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Ultrastructural morphometric study on the rat heart after chronic ethanol feeding

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Summary

Male Wistar rats were fed with ethanol for 33 weeks. Ethanol was administered in a liquid diet containing 33% of the calories as ethanol. In the control group ethanol was isocalorically replaced by glucose. Light and electron microscopic investigation of the hearts did not indicate significant structural abnormalities, in contrast to the results of some other groups. Nevertheless, morphometric analysis revealed considerable quantitative changes. The number of mitochondria was remarkably reduced and the volume of an average single mitochondrion nearly doubled, whereas the volume fractions of mitochondria and myofibrils were unaltered. The analysis of the mitochondrial subcompartments indicated a slight decrease of the surface area of inner mitochondrial membranes per unit volume of mitochondria and a slight increase of the volume fraction of the mitochondrial matrix space. Myocardial cell hypertrophy or atrophy were not observed. We believe that the mitochondrial changes are the expression of an impaired biogenesis of these organelles.

The increased number of capillaries in the ethanol-fed group is possibly caused by functional ethanol effects which may be partly similar to effects of chronic hypoxia.

Ethanol- or acetaldehyde-induced damage of heart mitochondria may play an important role in the pathogenesis of alcoholic cardiomyopathy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pathologisches Institut der Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 220/221, Postfach 104340, D-6900, Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany

    Gerhard Mall, Torsten Mattfeldt & Benedikt Volk

  2. Institut für Neuropathologie der Universität Heidelberg, Deutschland

    Gerhard Mall, Torsten Mattfeldt & Benedikt Volk

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  1. Gerhard Mall
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  2. Torsten Mattfeldt
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  3. Benedikt Volk
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Dedicated to Prof. Dr. G. Ule on the occasion of his 60th birthday

More detailed discussion in T. Mattfeldt: Inauguraldissertation (in prep.)

Supported by grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft VO 272/3

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Mall, G., Mattfeldt, T. & Volk, B. Ultrastructural morphometric study on the rat heart after chronic ethanol feeding. Virchows Arch. A Path. Anat. and Histol. 389, 59–77 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428668

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