Background/aims: Little is known about genetic alterations in large or small liver cell dysplasia. The aim of this study was to determine whether these lesions present numerical chromosome aberrations.
Methods: Eight patients with hepatocellular carcinoma on cirrhosis, five with large liver cell dysplasia and three with small liver cell dysplasia, were analysed by in situ hybridization with different centromeric nucleic acid probes specific respectively for chromosomes 1, 7, 17 and 18. In each case results were compared between dysplastic, tumoral and non-dysplastic cirrhotic cells. Four normal livers were also studied with the same method and served as cytogenetic controls.
Results: All cases of large liver cell dysplasia dysplayed a polysomic population for each investigated chromosome. A high variability of numerical chromosome aberrations was observed with a copy number of chromosomes which ranged from two to more than six. By contrast, only one case of small liver cell dysplasia showed chromosomal anomalies. Numerical aberrations of at least one chromosome were observed in six of the eight hepatocellular carcinoma while the non-dysplastic cirrhosis and normal liver always showed a diploid pattern.
Conclusions: These results demonstrate that cellular modifications in large liver cell dysplasia coexist with an early acquisition of genomic alterations, supporting the view that these phenotypic changes are preneoplastic.