OPTICAL DIFFRACTION STUDIES OF CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURES IN ELECTRON MICROGRAPHS II. Crystalline Inclusions in Mitochondria of Human Hepatocytes

Unit cell dimensions of mitochondrial crystals were determined by optical diffraction analysis of electron micrographs of human liver biopsy specimens . Identical unit cells were found in pathologic material obtained from six patients with Wilson's disease, from one patient with sickle-cell hepatitis, and from two normal subjects . These measurements led to the conclusion that the crystals observed in patients and in normal subjects were probably chemically identical. Furthermore, the relatively large size of the unit cell limits the choices for its constituents to phospholipid micelles or to relatively large protein molecules . morphology (for example, with the changes occurring in hepatocytes poisoned by copper in patients with Wilson's disease) suggest that the inclusions are degenerative (31) . However, very similar, if not identical, crystalline inclusions are also found in the giant mitochondria of normalappearing, binucleated hepatocytes which are obviously in a phzse of increased metabolic activity . In electron micrographs, these inclusions may appear as a group of parallel filaments which are straight (Fig . 1), or tightly coiled (31) and packed close together. They may also look like regularly spaced single dots (Fig . 2), groups of dots (26), or as alternating rows of dots and undulating lines or crescents (32) . Their dimensions vary considerably, even throughout a single specimen ; they may measure as much as 2 μ in length and 0 .5 u in on A ril 3, 2017 D ow nladed fom Published December 1, 1969