The pathological study of enterosiderosis in guinea pigs

Abstract

Enterosiderosis in both SPF Hartley guinea pigs and vitamin C-deficient animals of the same strain were studied by light and electron microscopy. Enterosiderosis was detected in all animals in the present study. Macrophages, inclosing yellowish-brown pigments and erythrocytes, appeared in the lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa, mainly in the cecum. These pigments in the macrophages were positive for Prussian blue, PAS and the Nile blue reaction. Residual bodies containing highly electron-dense ferritin-like particles, lipofuscin granules and debris of phagocytized erythrocytes were found by electron microscopy in the macrophages. In vitamin C-deficient guinea pigs, the number of macrophages, including the same above pigments, appeared in the lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa, and there was severe enterosiderosis. In the absorptive cells of the intestinal mucous membrane, granules positive for the Prussian blue reaction appeared only in the duodenum. These findings strongly suggest that the pigments in the macrophages in enterosiderosis of the guinea pigs were mixtures of iron and lipofuscin granules and that the iron is derived from erythrocytes phagocytized by macrophages in the lamina propria, but not from iron absorbed by epithelial cells.