DISTRIBUTION AND LEVEL OF CALCYCLIN IN NORMAL RAT-TISSUES AND IN EXPERIMENTALLY-INDUCED LIVER-CIRRHOSIS BILIARIS

Using calcyclin-specific antibodies we show that in rat tissues calcyc lin is present at high level in two types of cells: epithelial and fib roblasts. However, not all epithelial cells and fibroblasts were calcy clin-immunopositive. The increased number of epithelial cells in exper imentally induced rat liver cirrhosis biliaris can be easily detected by immunohistochemistry. Consistently with these observations the leve l of calcyclin (protein and mRNA) is increased in this pathological ti ssue as shown by immunoblotting, ELISA, and Northern blotting. The res ults suggest that calcyclin might be a marker of some diseases where a n increase in number of epithelial cells takes place.