The diagnostic application of specific antiprocollagen sera. II. Analysis of liver biopsies.

Frozen, unfixed sections of human liver biopsies from patients with acute, subchronic, and chronic hepatitis or fibrotic liver disease were studied in indirect immunofluorescence with specific antisera to type I and type III procollagen. In early stages of both hepatitis and fibrotic liver disease, intralobular type III collagen synthesis is increased. Maximum values are reached years after the onset of disease. Intralobular procollagen I content is not increased in the acute stage, but rises only later. An increase of procollagen I seems to herald irreversible liver changes. This approach allows for exact localization and semiquantitative analysis of the synthesis of type I and type III collagen, and adds a new parameter to the diagnostic approaches in liver diseases.