Ultrastructural changes in the liver of patients with chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis

Electron microscopy examination of liver biopsies from 8 patients with chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis revealed ultrastructural changes similar to those previously described in chimpanzees with experimentally induced acute non-A, non-B hepatitis. These changes consisted of intranuclear clusters of electron-dense, 15-27-nm particles that were detected in five out of the eight patients and of circular cytoplasmic structures that were present in seven cases. Other cytoplasmic abnormalities found in our patients related to the presence of curved membranes apparently developing from apposition of two cisternae of endoplasmic reticulum. In contrast with what has been reported in infected chimpanzees, the nuclear and cytoplasmic changes were not mutually exclusive in our patients, but coexisted in four of them.