Vitamin A-containing lipocytes and formation of type III collagen in liver injury.

Hepatocellular necrosis in carbon tetracholride-induced injury of rats is associated with an accumulation of lipocytes (perisinusoidal cells or Ito cells) containing fat droplets and giving vitamin A fluorescence. In the subsequent formation of connective tissue septa, transitional cells having morphologic characteristics of lipocytes and fibroblasts are abundant and are associated with the appearance of type III collage-. The features suggest that the lipocyte is the precursor of the fibroblasts responsible for parenchymal fibrillogenesis and under these conditions forms type III collagen. The process is a postulated link between hepatocellular necrosis and fibrosis.