The toxicity of purified ricin from Ricinus communis to rats was examined by histological and histochemical methods. Sprague-Dawley rats were injected intraperitoneally with 75㎍/㎏ body weight of ricin and were sacrified at intervals of 6, 24, 48 and 120 hours after injection.
The major morphological changes, such as cloudy swelling, hydropic degeneration, necrosis, fatty change, blood congestion, increase of Kupffer cells in number and extension of sinusoids, were obvious in the liver of experimental group. These morphological changes of hepatic cells were mainly observed in both the periportal and midlobular region of hepatic lobule. The extension of sinusoids was obvious in the centrolobular region. And glycogen distribution of hepatic cells tended to decrease in the same region showing morphlogical changes as compared with the control group.

• 조운복(부산대학교 생물교육과) | Un-Bock Jo (Dept. of Biology Education, Pusan National University)
• 최병태(부산대학교 생물교육과) | Byung-Tae Choi (Dept. of Biology Education, Pusan National University)
• 조기진(부산대학교 생물교육과) | Gi-Jin Jo (Dept. of Biology Education, Pusan National University)
• 길영기(고신대학교 해부학교실) | Young-Gi GiI (Dept. of Anatomy, Kosin University)
• 김재호(경성대학교 생물학과) | Jae-Ho Kim (Dept. of Biology, Kyungsung University)
• 장혜영(고신대학교 생물학과) | Hae Young Jang (Dept. of Biology, Kosin University)