Liver necrosis,adenovirus type 2 and thymic dysplasia

Summary An association between adenovirus and liver cell damage, although suspected, has not been frequently demonstrated in the human. In this presentation the necropsy of a two month old female infant with thymic dysplasia will be reported who died with liver necrosis in the absence of pulmonary changes. Sections of the liver showed numerous Feulgen-positive intranuclear inclusions with a distinct mosaic-like pattern on high magnification. Adenovirus was isolated from the liver and identified as type 2 by hemagglutination-inhibition and neutralisation tests. Electronmicroscopy of the liver showed considerable multiplication of the virus in most of the liver cells. The characteristic para-crystalline array of the virions could frequently be seen. The appearance of the virion, its size, and cellular distribution was typical of an adenovirus.This appears to be the first instance in which adenovirus has actually been shown by electron-microscopy in the human liver, and the third instance in which liver necrosis due to adenovirus was associated with thymic dysplasia.This work was supported by Canadian Federal Public Health Research Grant No. 602-7-97 (to Dr. J. Embil). Presented at the Meeting of the Canadian Association of Pathologists, Sherbrooke, Quebec, 1972.