Systemic histopathology of rats with CCl4-induced hepatic cirrhosis

Systemic histopathological examinations were carried out on rats with CCl4-induced hepatic cirrhosis. Moderate congestion in the spleen, prominent oedema and focal acinar cell degeneration in the pancreas, marked haemorrhage and phagocytosis of haemosiderin by macrophages in the pancreaticoduodenal lymph node, appearance of monocytes bearing haemosiderinlike granules in the pulmonary arteries and cardiac right atrium, and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis were consistently observed in rats with hepatic cirrhosis. In addition, a marked increase in number of target cells and the appearance of a small number of monocytes bearing haemosiderinlike granules were also commonly found in the peripheral blood smears of these animals. These findings are considered to be important in the use of the CCl4-induced model of hepatic cirrhosis in the rat.