The lipocytes in normal human liver. A quantitative study.

A quantitative analysis of lipocytes (fat-storing cells, Ito cells) has been conducted on needle liver biopsies of 8 subjects without hepatic impairment. The mean volume density of lipocytes was 1.88 +/- 0.25% of parenchymal volume, and the number of lipocytes per 1,000 hepatocytes (Ito cell index) was 63.45 +/- 19.18. A study of the zonal distribution showed that the values were significantly higher in the centrolobular than in the periportal areas. No correlation was evident between the volume density or the number of lipocytes and the volume density of parenchymal steatosis. The high coefficients of variation resulting from the present study are evidence that quantitative data are necessary to evaluate volumetrical or numerical variations of lipocytes.