In liver

Liver

The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...

 pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

, a ground glass hepatocyte, abbreviated GGH, is a liver parenchyma

Parenchyma

Parenchyma is a term used to describe a bulk of a substance. It is used in different ways in animals and in plants.The term is New Latin, f. Greek παρέγχυμα - parenkhuma, "visceral flesh", f. παρεγχεῖν - parenkhein, "to pour in" f. para-, "beside" + en-, "in" + khein, "to pour"...

l cell

Cell (biology)

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....

 with a flat hazy and uniformly dull appearing cytoplasm

Cytoplasm

The cytoplasm is a small gel-like substance residing between the cell membrane holding all the cell's internal sub-structures , except for the nucleus. All the contents of the cells of prokaryote organisms are contained within the cytoplasm...

 on light microscopy

Microscopy

Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view samples and objects that cannot be seen with the unaided eye...

. The cytoplasm's granular homogeneous eosinophilic staining is caused by the presence of HBsAg

Hbsag

HBsAg is the surface antigen of the Hepatitis-B-Virus . It indicates current Hepatitis B infection.-Structure and function:The capsid of a virus has different surface proteins from the rest of the virus which act as antigens...

.

The appearance is classically associated with abundant hepatitis B antigen

Antigen

An antigen is a foreign molecule that, when introduced into the body, triggers the production of an antibody by the immune system. The immune system will then kill or neutralize the antigen that is recognized as a foreign and potentially harmful invader. These invaders can be molecules such as...

 in the endoplasmic reticulum

Endoplasmic reticulum

The endoplasmic reticulum is an organelle of cells in eukaryotic organisms that forms an interconnected network of tubules, vesicles, and cisternae...

, but may also be drug-induced. In the context of hepatitis B, GGHs are only seen in chronic infections, i.e. they are not seen in acute hepatitis B.

GGHs were first described by Hadziyannis et al..

Types of ground glass hepatocytes

Several different types of GGHs are recognized:

• Type I - morphologically consist of GGHs that are scattered singly and have weak Pre-S2 positive immunostaining.
• Type II - morphologically consist of GGHs that are in clusters and have Pre-S2 negative immunostaining.

There is some evidence to suggest that type II GGHs predispose to hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...

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External links

• Image of ground glass hepatocyte - med.ohio-state.edu.
• Chronic hepatitis - pathconsultddx.com.