The ultrastructure of alcoholic liver disease: a review and analysis of 100 biopsies

Liver biopsies from 100 patients with alcoholic liver disease of various grades of severity were examined by light and electron microscopy. A comprehensive account of ultrastructural morphology is presented. The organellar changes were variable both in nature and intensity. The most consistent ultrastructural changes, irrespective of disease severity, were dilatation of endoplasmic reticulum and fat accumulation. The former is the EM counterpart of hepatocyte swelling at the light microscope level. Collagen deposition was detected earlier and more accurately by electron microscopy. A physical relationship between Mallory bodies and intermediate filament was also detected. As is the case with light microscopy, if cellular, stromal and organellar changes are considered independently, some may be regarded as typical, but none as pathognomonic of alcoholic liver disease.