Lysosomes and human liver disease: a biochemical and immunohistochemical study of beta-hexosaminidase.

Liver biopsies from 88 patients with different liver diseases were studied for beta-hexosaminidase activity. Liver specimens with normal light microscopical morphology showed no immunohistochemical reactivity for beta-hexosaminidase. Increased reactions were noted, mainly in hepatocytes, in biopsies from the patients with different liver diseases. A very large interindividual variation of biochemical liver beta-hexosaminidase activity occurred even within the same diagnostic group, and no group of patients showed any significant increase of liver beta-hexosaminidase activity compared with the patients with normal liver histology. Livers with positive immunohistochemistry showed increased biochemical values for beta-hexosaminidase. In patients with cholestasis due to alcohol abuse, the immunohistochemical reaction was intense and the biochemical beta-hexosaminidase activity was significantly increased compared with non-alcoholic cholestatic cases. Furthermore, blood samples taken from 50 patients at the same time as the liver biopsies. These patients showed significantly increased serum beta-hexosaminidase activity compared with normal controls, but no correlation was found between beta-hexosaminidase activities in the liver and serum of these patients.