Abstract
Chicken livers were observed under light and electron microscopes at various time intervals after i. v. injection of colloidal carbon and glutaraldehyde-treated goat or rat erythrocytes. In the chicken liver, lymphocyte aggregates which mainly consisted of T-lymphocytes were always found in the space of Disse and interlobular connective tissue. Kupffer cells ingested a large number of carbon particles or erythrocytes in their cytoplasm at 5 min after injection. After 1 to 3 days, carbon-laden Kupffer cells moved from the sinusoids into the space of Disse, and initially accumulated around lymphocyte aggregates. Thereafter carbon-laden Kupffer cells stayed within lymphocyte aggregates for 7 to 21 days. Erythrocyte-ingesting Kupffer cells also migrated to accumulate in the lymphocyte aggregates after 1 day. Sinusoidal endothelial cells also ingested a small amount of carbon particles, but neither took up erythrocytes nor migrated into the space of Disse unlike Kupffer cells. Macrophage-T lymphocyte interaction was suggested by the accumulation of phagocytic Kupffer cells within the lymphocyte aggregate.
