Ultrastructural changes in the liver of rats treated with aflatoxin B1 and undernutrition.

White male Wistar rats were treated with Aflatoxin B1 for 2 months while on standard pellet food ad libitum or 80% undernutrition. Although each animal received 400 micrograms of AFB1 no cancer in the liver or elsewhere developed. Histologically the findings in the groups treated with the mycotoxin were the well known until now. Undernutrition led to atrophic and degenerative changes in the liver. Electronmicroscopically there were found marked changes in the nucleus, with microsegregation of the nucleolus; diminution and disorganization of endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria; changes in the lysosomes, abundance of microbodies etc. with difference according to the intoxication, nutrition, or both of them. However, the combination of the 2 etiologic factors did not lead to a simple summation of the deleterious effect. At the same time, we do not have the right to claim a real "anticarcinogenic" action of undernutrition.