One hundred and two liver biopsy specimens were stained for Argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions and associated proteins to assess its utility in differentiating normal, cirrhotic and neoplastic liver tissue. A statistically significant (p < 0.001) difference was observed between mean AgNOR counts of normal (1.53 +/- 0.4), post-hepatitic cirrhosis (3.65 +/- 0.53) and hepatocellular carcinoma (7.94 +/- 1.18). In contrast the mean AgNOR count of biopsies with alcoholic cirrhosis (1.57 +/- 0.06) was significantly less (p < 0.001) than post-hepatitic cirrhosis and was similar to that of normal liver tissue. It is concluded that AgNORs can act as a good adjuvant to histology in diagnosing liver diseases especially in differentiating post-hepatitic and alcoholic cirrhosis.