Morphometric, structural, and ultrastructural studies of tench (Tinca tinca L.) hepatocytes after copper sulfate administration.

A structural, ultrastructural, and morphometric study was made of the liver parenchyma of 12 adult tench (Tinca tinca, L.) subjected to acute experimental copper sulfate poisoning. The lesions observed were characterized by the accumulation in the cytoplasm of large amounts of hemoglobinemic pigment produced by intense hemolysis, initially in Kupffer cells and by the last stage of the experiment in hepatocytes. This process became increasingly severe, and culminated in the massive necrosis of large areas of liver parenchyma, which led to the death of tench 12 days after the start of the experiment.