Copper distribution within and between newborn livers

Copper concentration was determined in different liver samples (blocks, needle biopsy and bile) obtained from 9 newborns and 3 infants at autopsy. Tissue blocks, sampled at ten equally spaced intervals between the left and the right lobe, revealed in newborns high copper concentrations, ranging from 93 to 335 mg/Kg of dry tissue with an upward trend from the right to the left lobe. The situation differed in infants where a lower and more evenly distributed copper content, ranging from 49 to 123 mg/Kg of dry tissue, was found, which seemed to approximate the situation found in adults. Copper concentration was generally high in bile, with an overall range from 99 to 413 mg/Kg of dry material. This fact was particularly significant in infants, considering their low hepatic copper content. Copper content determined in percutaneous biopts was significantly correlated to (P less than 0.01), though only moderately predictive of (r2 = 0.54), the average copper content calculated from the ten liver blocks.