Summary
The main hepatic change in erythropoietic protoporphyria is the deposition of protoporphyrin. Brown deposits of this pigment occur in bile canaliculi and ductules, discretely in hepatocytes, and secondarily in macrophages and Kupffer cells. The pigment is deposited in a crystalline form. Under the fluorescence microscope with a mercury maximum pressure burner (HO 50) at a wave length of 380–500 nm, it shows a typical red fluorescence even after paraffin embedding. Its crystalline structure results in a characteristic double refraction under the polarising microscope.
Light-microscopically, hepatocellular reactions are characterised mainly by discrete alterations in the ergastoplasm. However, cell damage is indicated by diffusely distributed, hyaline single cell necrosis and by cytolytic piecemeal necrosis at the peripheries of hepatic lobules. Numerous, often disturbed mitoses produce binuclear and multinuclear hepatocytes. The obligatory secretion of protoporphyrin into the bile ducts leads to an alteration in the canalicular and ductular excretion apparatus which involves distinct ductular proliferation and accompanying fibrosis. Piecemeal necrosis is a further consequence of this process. The resulting histological picture is similar to sclerosing cholangitis with which it also has in common the slowly progressive development of hepatic cirrhosis.
Zusammenfassung
Im Vordergrund der hepatischen Reaktion bei der erythropoetischen Protoporphyrie stehen braune Ablagerungen des Protoporphyrins in Canaliculi, Ductuli und -diskretim Leberepithel, sekundär auch in Makrophagen und besonders in den Sternzellen. Das Pigment wird in kristalliner Form abgelagert, es tritt lichtmikroskopisch als Tropfen und canaliculäre Ausgüsse in Erscheinung. Im Auflichtfluorescenzmikroskop mit Quecksilberhöchstdruckbrenner (HO 50) bei Lichtwellenlängen von 380–500 nm zeigt es noch nach Paraffinaufarbeitung typische Rotfluorescenz. Seine kristalline Struktur ist Ursache einer charakteristischen Doppelbrechung im Polarisationsmikroskop.
Hepatocelluläre Reaktionen äußern sich lichtmikroskopisch in meist diskreten Alterationen des Ergastoplasmas, besonders aber in diffus verteilten hyalinen Einzelzellnekrosen und läppchenperipheren Cytolysen nach Art der Mottenfraßnekrosen. Zahlreiche oft gestörte reparative Mitosen bedingen die Häufung doppel- und mehrkerniger Hepatocyten.
Die obligate Protoporphyrinausscheidung in die Gallenwege führt zur Alteration des canaliculären und duktulären Exkretionsapparates, die ausgeprägte Ductulusproliferation und begleitende Faservermehrung nach sich zieht. Auch die Mottenfraßnekrosen gehen darauf zurück. Das resultierende histologische Bild gemahnt an sklerosierende Cholangitiden, mit denen es auch die schleichende Entwicklung eines cirrhotischen Leberumbaus gemeinsam hat.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literatur
Altmann HW (1979) Morphologie der alkoholbedingten Leberschäden. In: Kühn HA, Wernze H (eds) Klinische Hepatologie. G. Thieme, Stuttgart, pp 6120–6132
Altmann HW (1980) Drug-induced liver reactions: a morphological approach. Curr Top Pathol 69: 69–142
Avner DL, Lee RG und Berenson MM (1981) Protoporphyrin-induced Cholestasis in the isolated in situ perfused rat liver. J Clin Invest 67: 385–394
Barnes HD, Hurwoth E, Millar JHD (1968) Erythropoietic porphyrin hepatitits. J Clin Pathol 21: 157–159
Bloomer JR, Davidson DL, Klatskin G (1973) Birefringent pigment is a diagnostic lesion on protporphyria. Gastroenterology 65: A-5/529
Cripps DJ, Scheuer PJ (1965) Hepatobiliary changes in erythropoietic protoporphyria. Arch Pathol 80: 500–508
Cripps DJ, Hawgood RS, Magnus IA (1966) Iodine tungsten fluorescence microscopy for porphyrin fluorescence. Arch Dermatol 93: 129–137
Cripps DJ, MacEachern WN (1971) Hepatic and erythropoietic protoporphyria. Delta-amino-levulinic acid synthetase, fluorescence and microfluorospectrophotometric study. Arch Pathol 91: 497–505
De Matteis F, Rimington C (1963) Disturbance of Porphyrin metabolism caused by Griseofulvin in mice. Br J Dermatol 75: 91–104
Donaldson EM, McCall AJ, Maquis IA, Simpson JR, Caldwell RA, Hargraves T (1971) Erythropoietic protoporphyria: two deaths from hepatic cirrhosis. Br J Dermatol 84: 14–24
Granick S, Urata G (1963) Increase in activity of Delta-Amino-vulinic acid synthetase in liver mitochondria induced by feeding of 3,5 Dicarbobethoxy - 1,4 Dihydrocollidine. J Biol Chem 238: 821–827
Gschnait F, Konrad K, Hönigsmann A, Denk H, Wolff K (1975) Mouse model for protoporphyria. I. The liver and hepatic protoporphyrin crystals. J Invest Dermatol 65: 290–299
Haeger-Aronson B (1963) Erythropoietic protoporphyria, a new type of inborn error of metabolism. Am J Med 35: 450–454
Horigughi M, Ido K, Nogami W, Furusugi Y, Tanaka M, Yoshida Y, Saki H, Yamanaka T, Sakai H, Kimura K, Matsumoto S (1981) A case of erythropoietic protoporphyria with liver cirrhosis. Acta Hepatol Japan 22: 91–101
Klatskin G, Bloomer JR (1974) Birefingence of hepatic pigment deposits in erythropoietic protoporphyria. Gastroenterology 67: 294–302
Klinge O (1979) Morphologie toxischer und medikamentöser Leberschäden. In: Kühn HA, Wernze H (eds) Klinische Hepatologie. G. Thieme, Stuttgart, pp 6150–6171
Kniffen JC, Porter FS (1969) Intrahepatic porphyrastasis in erythropoietic protoporphyria. Clin Res 17: 26
Magnus IA, Jarrett A, Prankerd TAJ, Rimington C (1961) Erythropoietic protoporphyria: a new porphyria syndrome with solar urticaria due to protoporphyrinaemia. Lancet II: 448–451
Magnus IA, Roe DA, Bhutarsi LK (1969) Factors affecting the induction of porphyria in the laboratory rat. J Invest Dermatol 53: 400–413
Marver HS, Schmid R (1972) The porphyrias. In: Stanbury JB, Wyngaarden JB, Frederickson DS (eds) The metabolic basis of inherited disease, 3rd ed. McGraf-Hill, New York
Nakao K, Wado O, Takaku F, Sassa S, Yano Y, Urata G (1967) The origin of the increased protoporphyrin in erythrocytes of mice with experimentally induced porphyria. J Lab Clin Med 70: 923–932
Porter FS, Lowe BA (1963) Congenital erythropoietic protoporphyria. Blood 2: 521–531
Roe DA, Krook L, Wilkie DVM (1970) Hepatic porphyria in weenling pigs. J Invest Dermatol 54: 53–64
Schmidt D, Stich W (1971) Erythropoietische Protoporphyrie mit Porphyrinurie: Untersuchungen zur Frage der Leberbeteiligung bei erythropoietischer Protoporphyrie. Blut 22: 202–205
Scholnick P, Marver HS, Schmid R (1969) Erythropoietic protoporphyria, a misnomer. Clin Res 17: 278
Scholnick P, Marver HS, Schmid R (1971) Erythropoietic protoporphyria: evidence for multiple sites of excess protoporphyrin formation. J Clin Invest 50: 203–207
Scott AJ, Ansford AJ, Webster BH, Stringer HCW (1973) Erythropoietic protoporphyria with features of a sideroblastic anaemia terminating in liver failure. Am J Med 54: 251–259
Schwartz S, Johnson JA, Stephenson BD, Anderson AS, Edmondson PR, Fusaro RM (1971) Erythropoietic defects in protoporphyria. J Lab Clin Med 78: 411–434
Sweeney GO, Bowdie EB, Saunders SJ, Eales L (1963) Erythropoietic protoporphyria. A brief report of the final South African case. S Afr J Lab Clin Med 9: 247
Themann H, Bassewitz von DB (1969) Parakristalline Einschlußkörper der Mitochondrien des menschlichen Leberparenchyms. Elektronenmikroskopische und histochemische Untersuchungen. Cytobiology 1: 135–151
Thompson RPH, Molland EA, Nicholson DC, Gray CH (1973) Erythropoietic protoporphyria and cirrhosis in sisters. J Br Soc Gastroenterol 14: 934–938
Waldo ED, Tobias H (1973) Needle-like cytoplasma inclusions in the liver in porphyria cutanea tarda. Arch Pathol 96: 368–371
Weston-Hurst E, Paget GE (1963) Protoporphyria, cirrhosis and hepatome in the liver of mice given Griseofulvin. Br J Dermatol 75: 105–112
Wolff K, Wolff-Schreiner E, Gschnait, F (1975) Liver inclusions in erythropoietic protoporphyria. Eur J Clin Invest 5: 21–26
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Herrn Prof. Dr. H.-W. Altmann zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Klinge, O., Alexandrakis, E. Hepatische Reaktionen bei erythropoetischer Protoporphyrie. Virchows Archiv B Cell Pathol 37, 369–379 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02892585
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02892585
Key words
- Protoporphyrin pigment
- Fluorescence microscopy
- Polarising microscopy
- Liver cell damage
- Ductular proliferation