Mallory body


In histopathology, a Mallory body, Mallory–Denk body, or Mallory's hyaline is an inclusion found in the cytoplasm of liver cells. Mallory bodies are damaged intermediate filaments within the liver cells.

Associated conditions

Mallory bodies are classically found in the livers of people suffering from alcohol-induced liver disease and were once thought to be specific for that.
They are most common in alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis.
They are a recognized feature of Wilson's disease, primary biliary cirrhosis, non-alcoholic cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and morbid obesity, among other conditions. However, it has also been reported in certain other unrelated conditions.

Appearance

Mallory bodies are highly eosinophilic and thus appear pink on H&E stain. The bodies themselves are made up of intermediate cytokeratin 8/18 filament proteins that have been ubiquitinated, or bound by other proteins such as heat shock proteins, or p62/Sequestosome 1.

Eponym

It is named for the American pathologist Frank Burr Mallory, who first described the structures in 1911. A renaming as Mallory–Denk bodies was proposed in 2007 to honor the contribution of Austrian pathologist Helmut Denk for the molecular analysis of the pathogenesis of MDBs.

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