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Post-Mortem Physiological and Morphological Changes of Rumen Mucosal Tissue¹

Iowa State University, Ames

ABSTRACT

Rumen mucosa from the cranial sac was incubated in a volatile fatty acid medium, either immediately or after immersion in Krebs-Ringer (K-R) for 20 to 40 min, to study methods of maintaining viability. The metabolic activity of mucosa immersed in 39 C K-R for 40 min before incubation was not significantly different from that of mucosa incubated immediately; however, mucosa immersed in ice-cold K-R at 0 C for the same period was significantly less active. Immersion of mucosa in K-R at 39 C for 20 min and then in K-R at 0 C for 20 min did not reduce metabolic activity; whereas, reversing the treatments caused a marked reduction. In an attempt to explain the loss of metabolic activity after immersion at 0 C, rumen mucosa immersed in 39 C or 0 C K-R was compared with nonimmersed tissue from the gross to the ultrastructural level. The site of ß-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase action (involved in the metabolism of butyrate) was localized in the mitochondria of the epithelial layer of the mucosa with a standard histochemical technique. Electron microscopic studies indicated that immersion at 39 C caused an apparent coagulation of intracellular material and distortion of mitochondria, although cristae often are identifiable. Immersion in 0 C K-R resulted in a generally washed-out appearance, with distorted and exploded mitochondria, usually with an apparent lack of cristae.

¹ Journal Paper no. J-5244 of the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economies Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project no. 1324. Supported in part by funds provided by grant HE-04969-05, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, USPHS, and by a National Science Foundation graduate Fellowship (H. H. H.).

² Present address: 6751st Aeromedical Research Laboratory, Holloman AFB, New Mexico.

³ Department of Animal Science.

⁴ Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

⁵ Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, 1223 Western Avenue, Albany, New York 12203.