Mallory bodies compared with microfilament hyperplasia.

The binding characteristics of Mallory bodies (MBs) induced in livers of mice fed a long-term diet of griseofulvin were compared with the hyperplastic microfilaments induced by chronic phalloidin injections and with the MBs derived from livers of alcoholic patients at autopsy. Using the indirect immunofluorescence technique, smooth muscle antibody was shown to bind the hyperplastic microfilaments but not the human or mouse MBs. Peroxidase-antiperoxidase was shown to bind the human and mouse MBs but not the hyperplastic microfilaments. The evidence supports the idea that MBs are not composed of microfilaments (actin). The affinity of mouse and human MBs for peroxidase-antiperoxidase suggests that the MBs from these two species are chemically similar.