Cellular pathophysiology of hepatitis.

This paper represents an analysis of the subcellular events that occur in the human liver in viral hepatitis. They involve both hepatocytes and sinusoidal lining cells, including Kupffer cells. We present a new hypothesis concerning the sequence of events that occurs in hepatic parenchymal cells. These events begin with a virus-hepatocyte interaction that involves primary damage to the cell membrane. This is assumed to trigger a complex sequence of events that results in the characteristic hepatocellular impairment of this disease. These events center around ionic shifts resulting from an altered plasma membrane, leading to interactive events in hepatocyte organelles, mostly reversible, but resulting in the characteristic hepatocellular impairment.