fibrin and Cholangitis

Choledochoscopy demonstrates that stone-related suppurative cholangitis has the pathologic characteristics of a multiloculated intraductal abscess. The fibrin web compartmentalizes the duct, traps calculi, and limits spontaneous extrusion. The stones act as foreign bodies and stasis maintains the bacterobilia. This is the anatomic basis and rationale for early direct surgical drainage as the definite effective treatment.

Topics: Cholangitis; Common Bile Duct; Fibrin; Gallstones; Humans

Electron micrographs from intraplasmatic inclusion bodies of human hepatocytes are described; these paracrystallic aggregations consist of helically arranged filaments. All the observed periodic structures within these bodies can be indicated as originating from the same compound by the use of the Frauenhofer diffraction pattern. Concerning the genesis of these characteristically structured bodies two possibilities are discussed: 1. A special polymeric form of fibrinogen and fibrin built up in vivo. 2. Polymerization of a monomeric enzyme, for example, glutamate dehydrogenase, to paracrystallic bodies by fixation-dependent cross-linkages.

Topics: Biopolymers; Cholangitis; Crystallization; Cytoplasm; Endoplasmic Reticulum; Enzymes; Fibrin; Fibrinogen; Glutamate Dehydrogenase; Humans; Inclusion Bodies; Liver; Male; Mitochondria, Liver