6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999

A033
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF METABOLIC HETEROGENEITY OF GLYCOGEN IN HEPATOCYTES IN PATIENTS WITH LIVER CIRRHOSIS.
Bezborodkina NN, Kudratseva MV, Kudratsev BN

Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St.Petersburg, Russia

Investigation of glycogen function in hepatocytes of different liver lobule zones is particularly important in understanding glycogen metabolism in human and animals in norm and pathology. Glycogen content was determined in hepatocytes of different lobule zones of the normal human liver and the liver of patients with liver cirrhosis of viral or alcohol etiology. Quantitative analysis of glycogen content in hepatocytes of portal and central lobule zones was conducted on slices of human liver (the material of series live punctional biopsies) stained using a quantitative variant of PAS-reaction (Kudryavtseva et al., 1970; 1974). The measurements were done by image analyzer "Videotest". The results showed clear differences of glycogen contents in different lobule zones in normal liver and in liver during viral and alcohol cirrhosis. Glycogen contents in hepatocytes of portal lobule zone were significantly higher than in the central lobule zone in patients with viral cirrhosis. Opposite data were obtained in patients with alcohol cirrhosis. Significantly higher glycogen contents were found in hepatocytes of the central lobule zone. Thus, the pattern of the glycogen content in hepatocytes of different lobule zones can be used as an indicator of etiology of liver cirrhosis.