To evaluate if serum procollagen type III peptide (P-III-P) and laminin levels reflect the extent of liver fibrosis or inflammation, we have studied 67 patients with histologically proven alcoholic liver disease and 12 non-alcoholic control with normal liver function test. The result showed that P-III-P values were significantly elevated in the patients with alcoholic hepatitis (1.87 +- 2.01 U/ml), alcoholic chronic active hepatitis (1.16 +- 1.20) and alcoholic liver cirrhosis (1.26 +- 1.50) compared to fatty liver (90.76 +- 0.49), alcoholic hepatic fibrosis (0.68 +- 0.60) and healthy controls (0.67+- 0.34 U/ml) (p<0.05). When the cut-off value for P-III-P is set at 1.25 U/ml (mean of the fatty liver+2 SD), nearly all (94.1%) of the case with elevated values above the cut-off were alcoholic hepatitis, alcoholic chronic active hepatitis and liver cirrhosis. Furthermore, a close correlation (r= 0.60) was found between the serum P-III-P and laminin (p<0.001). Although P-III-P and laminin did not appear to be particularly useful for differentiating various types of alcoholic liver disease, their concentrations seemed to be related to a degree of hepatic inflammation. And it is evident from our finding that an unexpected increase in serum P-III-P and laminin values could indicate the presence of alcoholic hepatitis, alcoholic chronic active hepatitis and alcoholic liver cirrhosis.