Cytofluorimetric study of glycogen content in parenchymal liver cells of hepatitits patients

: Using cytofluorimetry, glycogen amount was measured in hepatic parenchymal cells on stained slides made of biopsied liver tissue taken from patients with chronic hepatitis. The glycogen content has been shown to increase progressively with the progression of the disease (by almost 3 times); the population of hepatocytes becoming more and more heterogenous as to their glycogen level. Simultaneously some typical morphological changes of hepatocytes were also found: increased dencondensation and vacuolization of the cytoplasm, a loss of cytoplasmic and nuclear boundaries. It is suggested that the glycogen content and morphological features of hepatocytes may be indicative as criteria of the hepatic disease dignosis.