DISTRIBUTION AND LEVEL OF CALCYCLIN IN NORMAL RAT TISSUES AND IN EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED LIVER CIRRHOSIS BILIARIS

Using calcyclin-specific antibodies we show that in rat tissues calcyclin is present at high level in two types of cells: epithelial and fibroblasts. However, not all epithelial cells and fibroblasts were calcyclin-immunopositive. The increased number of epithelial cells in experimentally induced rat liver cirrhosis biliaris can be easily detected by immunohistochemistry. Consistently with these observations the level of calcyclin (protein and mRNA) is increased in this pathological tissue as shown by immunoblotting, ELISA, and Northern blotting. The results suggest that calcyclin might be a marker of some diseases where an increase in number of epithelial cells takes place.