title: Ubiquitin: an immunohistochemical marker of Mallory bodies and alcoholic liver disease.
abstract: One hundred forty eight liver needle biopsies, comprising 88 consecutive biopsies from patients with clinically diagnosed or suspected alcoholic liver disease and 60 selected biopsies from non-alcoholics, were immunostained for the cell stress protein ubiquitin (Ub). Ub + cells were detected in all of 33 biopsies with alcoholic hepatitis (AH). Practically all Mallory bodies (MBs) showed intense Ub-staining. In addition, many cells revealed Ub + granules lying aggregated (pre-MBs) or dispersed in the cytoplasm of ballooned cells. The mean number of Ub + cells in 10 biopsies with AH was more than 30 times the number of MBs and more than 6 times the number of MBs + pre-MBs found in adjacent Haematoxylin-Eosin (HE) stained sections. Among 55 biopsies from alcoholic patients without AH (i.e. without MBs or pre-MBs in HE stained sections), Ub + cells occurred in eight (14.5%). Among the 60 selected biopsies from non-alcoholic patients with liver diseases in which hepatocyte ballooning and occasionally MBs are seen, a few Ub + cells were revealed in two out of ten with primary biliary cirrhosis (one of which also showed MBs) but none in biopsies with primary sclerosing cholangitis, long-standing large duct obstruction, or various hepatitides. Thus Ub-immunostaining appears to be a highly sensitive and specific method in the detection of MBs and MB precursor stages, making it a valuable tool in the study of alcoholic liver disease, and particularly a more objective method (compared to conventional staining methods) of diagnosing alcoholic hepatitis.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, Aalborg Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vyberg
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Leth
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D005235:Fatty Liver, Alcoholic / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006519:Hepatitis, Alcoholic / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D014452:Ubiquitins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014452:Ubiquitins