A non-bile duct origin for intestinal crypt-like ducts with periductular fibrosis induced in livers of F344 rats by chloroform inhalation.

To evaluate the toxic effects of prolonged exposure to chloroform vapors, female and male F344 rats were exposed to 0, 2, 10, 30, 90 and 300 p.p.m. chloroform by inhalation for 7 or 5 days/week for up to 13 weeks. The purpose of this study was to characterize a lesion that occurred in the livers of rats in the 300 p.p.m. exposure groups. Atypical glandular structures lined by intestinal-like epithelium and surrounded by dense connective tissue occurred in the livers of rats exposed to strongly hepatotoxic atmospheric concentrations of chloroform. Bile duct bromodeoxyuridine labeling indices as well as observations of the locations of the early lesions at the 3 and 6 week time points indicate that these lesions arose from a population of cells remote from the bile ducts. We refer to these lesions as intestinal crypt-like ducts with periductular fibrosis to distinguish them from true cholangiofibrosis. Here, intestinal crypt-like ducts with periductular fibrosis were seen only in rats exposed to 300 p.p.m. chloroform, and the multiplicity and severity of the lesions were greater in the right liver lobe. The lesion only occurred in association with liver necrosis and dramatic increases in hepatocyte labeling indices, while labeling indices in bile ducts in the same animals were not significantly different from controls. There was a treatment-related increase of transforming growth factor-alpha immunoreactivity in hepatocytes, bile duct epithelium, bile canaliculi and oval cells, and an increase in transforming growth factor-beta immunoreactivity in hepatocytes, bile duct epithelium and intestinal crypt-like ducts. Thus, intestinal crypt-like ducts with periductular fibrosis appeared to develop from a population of cells unrelated to bile ducts. Also, they occurred only in animals exposed to chloroform concentrations that induced significant hepatocyte necrosis and regenerative cell proliferation and were associated with increased growth factor expression or uptake.