Cuproproteins of hepatocyte lysosomes in normal and fatty liver.

The pathophysiological significance of cuproproteins in hepatocyte lysosomes was studied in 7 patients with structurally normal livers and 13 patients with fatty livers by energy-dispersion X-ray microanalysis. In most patients, in both groups, copper and sulfur coexisted in hepatocyte lysosomes. The correlation between copper and sulfur indicated that copper transfer between the cytosol and lysosomes was mediated by a cuproprotein. The copper indices of the lysosomal proteins and transfer proteins were high in some fatty livers. These observations suggest that cuproproteins in hepatocytes are not necessarily pathological, but are present in greater amounts in some fatty livers, probably because of impaired bile drainage.