D. Sztika 1, Anca Streinu-Cercel 2, F. Pop 3, G.C. Curcă 4, M.C. Rusu 5
1 MD, PhD.stud., Assistant – Chair of Anatomy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Victor Babeş”, Timişoara, Romania
2 MD, PhD, Assistant – (a) Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, (b) “Prof.Dr. Matei Balş” National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Bucharest, Romania
3 MD, PhD, Senior Lecturer – Discipline of Pathologic Anatomy, Chair M65 – Faculty of Medicine, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
4 MD, PhD, Assoc.Professor – (a) Chair of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, (b) “Mina Minovici” National Institute of Legal Medicine, Bucharest, Romania
5 MD, PhD (Med.), PhD stud.(Biol.), Senior Lecturer Anatomy and Embryology, Principal Investigator – (a) Discipline of Anatomy, Chair MD 01, Faculty of Dental Medicine, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania (b) Institute of Biology – Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract
The hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are the pericytes of the hepatic parenchyma, known as being immunopositive for GFAP, if quiescent, or for desmin, if activated. We attempted to identify by immunohistochemistry on paraffin-embedded specimens whether or not these phenotypes of the parenchymal HSCs can be identified also within the portal spaces and tracts. We used liver samples drawn from 6 autopsied human cadavers that were first immunostained for GFAP and desmin. As we identified desminpositive cells (DPCs) in the periportal areas of the large portal spaces, but not GFAP-positive cells, and those DPCs were not presenting cytoplasmic processes as the HSCs, we presumed them to be myopericytes and performed immunostaining for CD34 on successive slides. The respective DPCs appeared to be also CD34-positive and seemed to cluster within well-represented periportal capillary plexuses. As so, it appeared to us that a subpopulation of pericytes, namely myopericytes, different from the HSCs, can be considered as related to the large portal spaces and are presumably involved in angiogenesis that, in turn, is a key process in various chronic liver diseases.