[Expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in the liver tissue of hepatitis B patients]

Liver biopsy and autopsy specimens of 153 cases, including 39 cases of acute severe hepatitis (ASH), 21 cases of subacute severe hepatitis (SSH), 11 cases of chronic severe hepatitis (CSH), 22 cases of active cirrhosis (AC), 20 cases of acute mild (AMH), chronic persistent (CPH) and active hepatitis (CAH), respectively, were immunohistochemically stained for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) to compare the proliferative activity of hepatocytes by using labelling index (LI). LI is higher in CAH, SSH, and AMH than in AC and CSH (P < 0.01). In the latter, LI was completely negative in most of the specimens (25/33, 75.8%) and few scattered hepatocytes positive for PCNA were found in the remaining 8 cases (8/33, 24.2%) in the area next to the fibrotic septum and varied greatly in different pseudolobules. The results showed that the proliferative activity was very low in the AC and CSH. In some cases of ASH, the residual hepatocytes still kept prominent proliferating ability; it meant that the survived percentage would have been increased with regeneration of hepatocytes if those patients had not died early. In ASH and SSH, LI was significantly higher in patients who survived than in those who died (P < 0.01). The detection of PCNA in liver tissue with severe viral hepatitis is useful for prognostic evaluation.