** Histopath : Liver Pathology Flashcards
What is the weight of the liver
• Weight: 1500 g
What is the liver’s blood supply
- Hepatic portal vein
- Hepatic artery
Does the liver tend to be affected by ischaemic diseases?
because of dual blood supply the liver does NOT tend to get affected by ischaemic diseases
Which cells are present in the liver?
• Hepatocytes
• Bile ducts (cholangiocytes)
• Blood vessels
• Endothelial cells
• Kupffer cells
• Resident macrophages
• Stellate cells
What is the function of the stellate cells in the liver?
- In most people, these cells don’t do much other than store vitamin A
- When activated, they become myofibroblasts and lay down collagen
- They are responsible for most of the scarring in liver disease
Describe the structure of the endothelial cells in the liver
- In the liver, the endothelial cells do NOT sit on a basement membrane
- The endothelium is discontinuous - there are no tight junctions
What does this show?
liver
- The portal tract is at the bottom left and the central vein is at the top right
- The blood will flow from the portal tract to the central vein
What does the portal tract consist of?
- : portal triad = hepatic artery (branch), portal vein (branch) and bile duct
How many zones are there in the liver?
THREE zones in the liver: 1, 2 and 3
- The cells look the same but they are functionally very different
- ‘They begin life in zone 1, grow up in zone 2 and retire in zone 3’
- Therefore, cells in zone 3 have more metabolically active enzymes
Describe the normal structure of the liver
- normal hepatocytes have microvilli
- REMEMBER: endothelial cells in the liver have NO basement membrane and have spaces between them
- Kupffer cells are found within the sinusoids
- Stellate cells sit in the space between the endothelial cells and the hepatocytes, known as the space of Disse
- Blood can easily get through the spaces between endothelial cells and come into contact with hepatocytes
What are the changes that happen to the liver’s microstructure during liver injury?
-
Changes in Liver Injury
- Kupffer cells become activated (typical inflammatory response)
- Endothelial cells stick together so blood finds it hard to make it through
- IMPORTANT: in liver injury, basement membrane-type collagens are secreted into the space of Disse by activated stellate cells
- Hepatocytes lose their microvilli
- Because of all of these changes, blood finds it hard to diffuse into the hepatocytes
Define cirrhosis
- WHOLE liver is involved
- Fibrosis
- Nodules of regenerating hepatocytes
- Distortion of liver vascular architecture: intra- and extra-hepatic shunting of blood
What is extra-hepatic shunting?
extra-hepatic shunting is referring to the shunting of blood to sites of porto-systemic anastomosis (e.g. gastro-oesophageal junction)
What is the difference between intra-hepatic and extra-hepatic shunting?
- Normally, blood comes from the intestines, is filtered through the liver and comes out via the hepatic vein
- Extrahepatic Shunting - the blood never reaches the liver because it backlogs into the sites of porto-systemic anastomosis
- Intrahepatic Shunting - the blood comes through the liver but it does NOT come into contact with hepatocytes (so the blood is unfiltered and toxic)
How is cirrhosis classified?
-
According to NODULE SIZE (old method)
- Micronodular
- Macronodular
-
According to AETIOLOGY
- Alcohol/insulin resistance
- Viral hepatitis
- There is some overlap between these two forms of classification:
- Micronodular tends to be associated with alcoholism
- Macronodular tends to be associated with viral infections
What are the complications of cirrhosis?
-
Complications of Cirrhosis
- Portal hypertension
- Hepatic encephalopathy
- Liver cell cancer
Is cirrhosis reversible?
cirrhosis may be REVERSIBLE
What is the aetiology of acute hepatitis?
- Viruses (mainly hepatitis A and E)
- Drugs
What does this show?
Acute hepatitis
- A common histological feature of all types of acute hepatitis (regardless of aetiology) is spotty necrosis
What is the aetiology of chronic hepatitis?
- Viral hepatitis
- Drugs
- Autoimmune
How is chronic hepatitis classified?
- Severity of inflammation = GRADE (‘how bad does it look’)
- Severity of fibrosis = STAGE (‘how far has it spread’)
What does this show?
Interface Hepatitis
- Used to be called ‘piecemeal hepatitis’
- It is difficult to see where the portal tract ends and the hepatocytes begin because the inflammation crosses the limiting plate
What does this show? What is the blue structure?
normal portal tract
blue = collagen
What does this show?
- there is a lot of fibrosis in between the portal tract and the central vein
What is a consequence of fibrosis between the portal tract and the central vein?
- This fibrosis will lead to intrahepatic shunting - instead of going through the hepatocytes, blood will go straight from the portal tract to the central vein without being filtered
How does liver disease progress?
- Liver disease will progress in a sequence
- Patients will develop fibrosis, which gets progressively worse
- Eventually they will get cirrhosis
- Once you have cirrhosis, you could become decompensated and you might need a liver transplant
- Cirrhosis is also a risk factor for HCC
- NOTE: HCC is becoming increasingly common in non-cirrhotic livers