COVALENT CROSS-LINKING OF LIVER COLLAGEN BY PYRIDINOLINE INCREASES INTHE COURSE OF EXPERIMENTAL ALVEOLAR ECHINOCOCCOSIS

We report that covalent cross-linking of collagen molecules by pyridin oline increases significantly in liver in a murine model of alveolar e chinococcosis. The highest amount of pyridinoline per collagen molecul e (up to 3.5 fold he control values) is found in liver parasitic lesio ns. It is also increased, but to a far lesser extent, ai distance from the fibrotic areas, in macroscopically normal zones of the liver, sug gesting that the increase in mature collagen cross-linking occurring i n the fibrogenesis due to Echinococcus multilocularis infection involv es the whole liver. The comparison of these data with those we have ob tained in another parasitic disease, murine schistosomiasis leading to a milder liver fibrosis, largely reversible following chemotherapy, s upports a relationship between the liver pyridinoline level and the se verity of liver fibrosis. Pyridinoline could be a tissular marker of c hronic liver fibrosis in parasitic diseases.