Immunohistochemical localization of type I, III and IV (basement membrane) collagens in the liver.

The tissue distribution of type I, III and IV (basement membrane) collagens in normal human and bovine livers was examined by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy, by using type-specific rabbit antibodies to individual types of bovine collagen. Type I and III collagens were found to distribute in the interstitium of portal tracts as thick fiber bundles and in perisinusoidal spaces as thin fibers like reticulin fibers, both in human and bovine livers. No significant distribution differences of type I and III collagens in the livers was observed under the experimental conditions employed, indicating that both collagens are involved in in vivo collagen, fibrillogenesis in the tissue, regardless of the sizes of collagen fibers, as in the skin (Conn. Tiss. Res. 7: 157-163, 1980). Type IV collagen, when examined with bovine liver, was located in hepatic arteries, portal veins and bile ducts of portal tracts, and was also distributed in the perisinusoidal spaces in a linear fasion.