[Cytofluorimetric study of glycogen fractions of the liver cells of patients with chronic viral and alcoholic hepatitis].

A cytofluorometric study was made of total glycogen and two glycogen fractions--the one easily soluble (ES) and the other hard soluble (HS) in isolated liver cells (needle aspiration biopsy) of patients in the norm and with chronic viral hepatitis (CVH) and chronic alcoholic hepatitis (CAH). The amount of LS in hepatocytes of patients with CAH was lower than that in patients with the norm or with CVH. This distinction was shown already at the beginning of chronic disease, and then, in spite of a considerable increase in the total glycogen content in hepatocytes, with progression of the disease did not change. The quantitative analysis of glycogen fraction contents in liver cells may be an additional differential diagnostic marker for the etiological distinction of chronic hepatitis.