Hepatocellular ballooning in liver cirrhosis is due to glycogenotic metabolic aberrations with facultative steatosis and ground glass formation

Background and aim Hepatocellular ballooning frequently occurs in chronic liver diseases, particularly alcoholic and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, often associated with Mallory-Denk body and ground glass formation. Cytoplasmic enlargement and “rarefication” due to ill-defined degenerative changes have been related to these alterations, but their striking resemblance to glycogenotic/steatotic changes characterizing preneoplastic clear cell populations discovered and detailed in various animal models of hepatocarcinogenesis and chronic human liver diseases prone to develop hepatocellular carcinomas remained unrecognized.