Qualitative study on the Kupffer cells in the liver of ethanol- and carbon tetrachloride-treated rats.

The treatment of rats with ethanol or CCl4 caused in addition to an increase in numbers, qualitative changes in the Kupffer cells. The rate of phagocytosis of opsonized erythrocytes was greatly increased in the Kupffer cells from CCl4-treated rats, compared with a slightly decreased phagocytosis in similar cells taken from ethanol-treated rats. The number of Fc-receptors per cell was slightly higher in the Kuppffer cells from ethanol- and CCl4-treated rats than in normal rats. Although the nonparenchymal cell fraction from the livers of ethanol- and CCl4-treated rats contained more mononuclear phagocytes than the respective control samples, both the adhering and nonadhering subfractions from the livers of ethanol-treated rats contained proportionally fewer mononuclear phagocytes following an assessment of adhesiveness than the other samples. No difference in esterase staining was observed between the groups.