Abstract

Ultrastructural features of the liver in eight cases of Indian childhood cirrhosis, a fatal and elusive liver disease in India, have been described. Severe parenchymal damage, diffuse creeping fibrosis, and other light microscopic alterations, including the frequent presence of cytoplasmic hyaline, reported earlier are confirmed in the present study. The hyaline is predominantly comprised of tangled masses of fibrils and some electron-dense particles possibly derived from endoplasmic reticulum. The morphological features of this hyaline are identical to those of alcoholic hyaline described by Biava and Smuckler. Mitochondria do not seem to participate in the structural evolution of hyaline.