Intrahepatic periductal glands in graft-versus-host disease

Degenerative epithelial changes with cytoplasmic eosinophilia and nuclear pleomorphism were found in the intrahepatic periductal glands in two patients who died following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. These changes, which have not been described in the literature to our knowledge, were closely associated with clinicopathologic signs of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and histologically they resembled small bile ductal lesions, a characteristic finding of hepatic GVHD. In addition, periductal glandular and small bile ductal lesions frequently coexisted. Neither livers from patients given autologous marrow transplantation nor other control livers including those from patients given abdominal irradiation revealed such glandular lesions. These results suggest that the observed changes in the intrahepatic periductal glands were a manifestation of GVHD.