Changes in nucleolar transcriptional activity in hepatitis B virus-associated chronic liver diseases. Preliminary results from a quantitative study of silver-stained nucleoli.

Modifications of gene expression may occur in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related chronic liver diseases, possibly also involving ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes contained in the nucleolus. Changes in the level of transcriptional activity of rRNA genes are reflected by variations in the number and/or size of the nucleoli. Therefore a quantitative analysis of the silver-stained nucleoli (AgNus) was performed in a small series of liver needle biopsies from patients with HBV+ chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH) (n = 3), HBV+ chronic active hepatitis (CAH) (n = 3) and HBV+ cirrhosis (CIR) (n = 3). In each case, 100 hepatocytes were selected. The number of the nucleoli (AgNuN), their total area (tAgNuA), the average area of each nucleolus (xAgNuA), the nuclear area (NA) and the percentage ratio of tAgNuA related to NA (rAgNuA) were determined for each hepatocyte nucleus. The pooled mean values of all the features were significantly different (p less than 0.001) among the case groups. The results point towards a remarkable increase of nucleolar activity in CAH in comparison with CPH, whereas an additional increment of this activity is associated with the progress from CAH to CIR.