Ultrastructural changes in human liver cells due to reversible acute hypoxia.

The ultrastructural alterations in human liver cells have been studied in reversible acute hypoxia. After thoracic and/or craniocerebral injury, the arterial oxygen saturation was under 60 mm Hg, and the circulation was intact, in all 20 patients. The hepatic cells were characterized by depletion of glycogen, swelling of the mitochondria with some irregularity of their membranes, and swelling of the endoplasmic reticulum, as well as by the appearance of large hypoxic vacuoles.