On the Change of the Golgi Apparatus in the Liver and Renal Cells in the Phlorizin-Glycosuria

Although it is generally recognized that the phlorizinglycosuria is simply due to a direct action of the poison on the kidney, some authors believe that phlorizin may also pocesses a specific effect upon the liver. Therefore it is an interesting problem, in the case of phlorizin-glycosuria, to examine the finding of the Golgi apparatus in the cells of the liver on the one hand and that in the kidney on the other hand. The author has studied this problem and obtained the following result. If the phlorizin (0.1g per kilo body weight) is injected into the ear vein of the rabbit, the liver cells of that animal show a decrease of the Golgi apparatus, since the element of the apparatus fall into small pieces and emigrate for the most part to the circulating blood through the neighbouring capillaries. On the contrary, the renal cells of the animal exhibit a conspicuous development of the Golgi apparatus, its elements increasing in size and number greatly. The above mentioned change occurs in the liver already 30 minutes after the phlorizin-injection, While it is the case in the kidney first after one hour. In both organs the change goes on in course of time and becomes most remarkable after 6 hours. From this time on, however, it lessens gradually, until the apparatus in both organs assumes again its normal appearance after 24 hours. Various experiments have been done in past, concerning the change of the glycogen in the liver and kidney in the case of phlorizin poisoning. Their results coincide with the author's finding concerning the Golgi apparatus, so that its development goes hand in hand with the quantity of glycogen. Therefore it is easily conjecturable that there exists a close ralation between the Golgi apparatus and the glycogen, the former probably playing an important role in the synthesis and analysis of the latter. Since the phlorizin exerts such a specific effect upon the liver, the author believes, it cannot be excluded that the liver has something to do with the phlorizin-glycosuria.