Ballooning degeneration

{{Short description|Form of liver parenchymal cell death}}

File:Histopathology of a ballooning hepatocyte.png

Image:Ballooning degeneration high mag cropped.jpg. A Councilman body can also be seen in the upper-right of the section.]]

In histopathology, ballooning degeneration, formally ballooning degeneration of hepatocytes, is a form of liver parenchymal cell (i.e. hepatocyte) death.

The name is derived from the fact that the cells undergoing this form of cell death increase in size (balloon).

It is generally considered a form of apoptosis,{{Cite journal | last1 = Yip | first1 = WW | last2 = Burt | first2 = AD | title = Alcoholic liver disease. | journal = Semin Diagn Pathol | volume = 23 | issue = 3-4 | pages = 149–60 | year = 2006| doi = 10.1053/j.semdp.2006.11.002| pmid = 17355088 }} and is a descriptor used in the context of inflamed fatty liver (steatohepatitis){{Cite journal | last1 = Liangpunsakul | first1 = S | last2 = Chalasani | first2 = N | title = Treatment of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. | journal = Curr Treat Options Gastroenterol | volume = 6 | issue = 6 | pages = 455–463 |date=Dec 2003 | doi = 10.1007/s11938-003-0047-0| pmid = 14585234 }} (which may be due to obesity or alcohol), as well as viral hepatitis.

The histomorphological appearance of ballooning degeneration is not pathognomonic for steatohepatitis, but usage of the term is generally confined to the condition, i.e. in the context of other histopathological findings the label ballooning degeneration is not used for cell death with cytoplasmic clearing and cell swelling.