Yuri Churin, Karuna Irungbam, Christoph S Imiela, David Schwarz, Hans-Joachim Mollenkopf, Uta Drebber, Margarete Odenthal, Oleg Pak, Magdalena Huber, Dieter Glebe, Martin Roderfeld, Elke Roeb
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A histopathological hallmark of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the presence of ground glass hepatocytes (GGHs). GGHs are liver cells that exhibit eosinophilic, granular, glassy cytoplasm in light microscopy and are characterized by accumulation of HBV surface (HBs) proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). More important, GGHs have been accepted as a precursor of HCC and may represent preneoplastic lesions of the liver. METHODS: Here we show that the reason for ground glass phenotype of hepatocytes in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and in HBs transgenic mice is a complex formation between HBs proteins and lipid droplets (LDs) within the ER...
March 22, 2021: Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology