Demonstration of albumin receptors onisolated human hepatocytes by light and scanning electron microscopy

✍ Scribed by Alessandro Trevisan; Fred Gudat; Richard Guggenheim; Gunthild Krey; Ursula Dürmüller; Guido Lüond; Marcel Düggelin; Jonas Landmann; Pietro Tondelli; Leonardo Bianchi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 553 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840020616

✦ Synopsis

The presence of albumin receptors on the plasma membrane of isolated human hepatocytes was investigated employing albumin-coupled latex minibeads. Hepatocyte-latex reaction was visualized by phase contrast and scanning electron microscopy.

The experiments demonstrate that hepatocytes exhibit binding activity for polymeric and monomeric forms of glutaraldehyde-treated albumin. Additionally, the reaction was shown to be speciesnonspecific.

These findings support the hypothesis that polymerized albumin may act as a bridge between receptors on hepatitis B virus and human hepatocytes.

Considerable data support a role of polymerized human serum albumin (P-HSA) and its receptors in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (1-3). Indeed, a speciesspecific receptor for P-HSA is detectable on Dane particles and on 22-nm particles of hepatitis B.

Imai (2) proposed the hypothesis that P-HSA may act