Cancer 1983 Jun 15;51(12):2197-205

Morphologic studies of the liver cell dysplasia

Watanabe S, Okita K, Harada T, Kodama T, Numa Y, Takemoto T, Takahashi T

Abstract
Light and electron microscopic changes in human liver cells which were
considered to be precancerous lesions, were studied. In our micrometrical
examination, dysplastic liver cells were classified into two types: large and
small dysplastic cell. Each type had nuclear pleomorphism and multinucleation;
however, the nucleocytoplasmic ratio of the large dysplastic cell remained
normal. Electron microscopically, the large dysplastic cell had some features of
regenerative cells. The nucleocytoplasmic ratio of the small dysplastic cell was
between that of normal hepatocytes and liver cancer cells. The difference in the
incidence of the small and large dysplastic cells in normal livers and cirrhotic
livers having hepatocellular carcinoma was statistically significant. In
addition, the small dysplastic cell had more of a tendency to produce a small
round focus. It was morphologically suggested that the more important candidate
for the precancerous cell in the liver was the small dysplastic cell