Journal of clinical pathology
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The WHO classification describes that combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma, subtypes with stem-cell features, intermediate-cell subtype (CHC-INT) is composed of tumour cells with features intermediate between hepatocytes and cholangiocytes. However, we previously reported that CHC-INT showed a high positive rate of biliary markers, but the expression of hepatocyte paraffin (HepPar)-1 was low. In this study, we examined the expression of other hepatocyte markers, such as arginase-1 (Arg-1), keratin (K) 8 and K18 in CHC-INT in order to examine the utility of pathological diagnosis in CHC-INT. ⋯ Arg-1 and K8 were good markers to identify intermediate cells between hepatocytes and cholangiocytes. These can be useful markers for pathological diagnosis of CHC-INT, which usually has wide histological diversities, in combination with other hepatocytic and/or cholangiocytic markers.