Figure 4.

The view of two cells present in the intercellular space (between hepatocytes)—a primitive-looking cell of the HPCL differentiating towards the intermediate hepatocyte-like cell (IHC) and the oval cell differentiating towards the biliary lineage, i.e., the intermediate bile-like cell (IBC) in a liver biopsy obtained from a child with AIH. (A) The cell nucleus of the IHC being formed fills up the cell (the nucleus/cytoplasm ratio is evidently shifted for the nucleus), with reduced electron density of chromatin. The cell cytoplasm, forming a very narrow rim around the cell nucleus, filled up with microgranular material, containing the minimum amount of primitive cell organelles; at the upper pole of the cell, a contour of a structure likely to correspond to a very primitive biliary canaliculus—hemicanaliculus (bc). Hyperactive Kupffer cell/macrophage (KC) containing numerous phagosomes adheres to its bottom pole. Around the IHC and the KC, the presence of a flocculent, condensed extracellular matrix (*), which can be referred to as the morphological precursor of collagen. Scale bar: 1 µm. (B) Within the IBC cytoplasm, the presence of rare primitive-looking organelles, mainly mitochondria and elements of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum; the nucleus/cytoplasm ratio markedly shifted for the cell nucleus. The cell has well-developed plasma membrane filopodia (>), well-developed basal membrane and pinocytotic vacuoles; visible is the transverse section through the bundle of mature collagen fibers (c) closely adhering to the cell. Scale bar: 0.5 µm.