Ultrastructural changes in the liver in experimental non-A, non-B hepatitis

Factor VIII, a blood-clotting derivative prepared from pooled human plasma, previously shown to cause a short-incubation-period non-A, non-B hepatitis in patients and in chimpanzees, was studied further to establish the nature of the pathological lesions associated with this infection. Percutaneous liver biopsy specimens were examined in detail. Cytoplasmic changes in the hepatocytes were observed on the 7th day after inoculation in one instance and after 13 days in the second, and persisted in the biopsy specimens for 13 weeks after infection. Abnormalities in hepatocyte nuclei, including aggregates of irregularly shaped particles 15-20 nm in size, were observed about 1 week after the onset of the cytoplasmic changes. The ultrastructural changes are described and their nature and significance discussed. Attention is drawn to somewhat similar cytoplasmic and nuclear changes occurring in other disease entities.