The process of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C - histological and immunohistochemical study

Liver fibrosis is one of the most serious histopathological (HP) lesions that, together with the inflammatory process and the hepatocyte lesions, determine the change of the liver architecture, having as a clinical result the onset of liver failure phenomena. Hepatitis C virus represents one of the most frequent conditions leading to the onset of liver fibrosis and favors the progression of the disease towards hepatocellular carcinoma. We evaluated the HP and immunohistochemical (IHC) aspects on fragments of liver biopsies taken from 104 patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C and altered capacity of work. In our study, we observed a growth of the portal (Kiernan) spaces by the presence of a chronic inflammatory infiltrate, the presence of collagen fibers and conjunctive matrix. The density and dimensions of collagen fibers were correlated with the severity of the liver disease, in the severe forms being highlighted porto-portal and porto-central fibrous bridges. The IHC examinations highlighted the change of the phenotype of perisinusoidal dendritic cells, the growth of the myofibroblast cells in the portal spaces, the growth of the macrophage number in the inflammatory infiltrate and of the Kupffer cells in the liver parenchyma.