Glossary of common terms and phrases appearing in liver histology reports
| Apoptotic body (also known as Councilman or acidophil body) | Hepatocyte undergoing a ‘programmed’ cell death in response to an insult, stains pink on H&E |
| Ballooning | A process associated with degenerating hepatocytes where they swell in size up to twofold or threefold with a ‘wispy’ clear cytoplasm often containing Mallory-Denk bodies; associated with steatohepatitis and cholate stasis |
| Bridging fibrosis | Fibrosis extending between adjacent portal tracts or between a portal tract and an adjacent hepatic venule; precursor to cirrhosis |
| Bilirubinostasis | Impaired flow of bile through the biliary system; abnormal amounts of bile can be seen within hepatocytes or bile canaliculi |
| Ductopenia | Reduced numbers of visible bile ducts; can be seen as part of PBC and PSC or can be idiopathic or drug-induced (vanishing bile duct syndrome) |
| Interface hepatitis (previously called piecemeal necrosis) | Inflammation seen in the border between the portal tracts and the liver parenchyma; a feature of chronic hepatitis |
| Kupffer cell | Star-shaped macrophages found lining sinusoids |
| Lobule/lobular region | A region containing hepatocytes and sinusoids found between portal tracts and hepatic venules |
| Mallory-Denk body | Inclusions found within the cytoplasm of ballooned hepatocytes. Composed of cytokeratin filaments, they have a ‘twisted-rope’ appearance |
| Onion-skin fibrosis | Concentric fibrosis around a bile duct; seen in PSC |
| Portal tract | Structure containing a branch of the hepatic artery and portal vein and a bile duct |
| Satellitosis | Inflammatory cells (neutrophils) surrounding a hepatocyte; seen in alcoholic hepatitis |
| Sinusoid | A sinusoidal blood vessel separated from hepatocytes by the space of Disse; location of mixing of portal and arterial blood |
| Steatosis | Abnormal fat deposition within hepatocytes (>5%) |
PBC, primary biliary cholangitis; PSC, primary sclerosing cholangitis.