Pericellular collagen in alcoholics with liver cirrhosis.

Therapy with enzyme inducing drugs may improve the clinical state of alcoholics with liver cirrhosis. The histological changes associated with the therapy were investigated by comparing liver biopsies before and after phenobarbital and medroxyprogesterone acetate treatment, known inducers of hepatic microsomal enzyme system, in eight alcoholics with cirrhosis and two control groups, subjects with normal liver and endstage alcoholic cirrhosis. Pericellular collagen, determined morphometrically, reduced from a point value of 87.6 +/- 28.3 to 63.4 +/- 16.7 (p less than 0.01), while the fibrous septa as well as the non-fatty and fatty parenchyma did not alter significantly. Antipyrine metabolism, an index of hepatic cell function, improved from 17.4 +/- 6.4 to 45.6 +/- 22.2 ml/min (p less than 0.01). Although direct correlation between the decrease of pericellular collagen fibres and antipyrine metabolism was not significant (r = 0.410) the findings suggest that accumulation of pericellular collagen prevents mechanically and availability of the compound to the cell, thus delaying its metabolism.