Hepatocellular Ballooning is Due to Highly Pronounced Glycogenosis Potentially Associated with Steatosis and Metabolic Reprogramming.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Hepatocellular ballooning is a common finding in chronic liver disease, mainly characterized by rarefied cytoplasm that often contains Mallory-Denk bodies (MDB). Ballooning has mostly been attributed to degeneration but its striking resemblance to glycogenotic/steatotic changes characterizing preneoplastic hepatocellular lesions in animal models and chronic human liver diseases prompts the question whether ballooned hepatocytes (BH) are damaged cells on the path to death or rather viable cells, possibly involved in neoplastic development.

Methods

Using specimens from 96 cirrhotic human livers, BH characteristics were assessed for their glycogen/lipid stores, enzyme activities, and proto-oncogenic signaling cascades by enzyme- and immunohistochemical appro

SUBMITTER: Ribback S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10794273 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature