The development of a proliferative response in liver parenchyma deprived of portal blood flow.

Abstract

A hyperplastic response develops in portal-deprived liver tissue when 90 per cent of the portal blood flow is deviated, and to a much lesser extent when 67 per cent of the portal blood flow is deviated to the remaining posterior liver lobes. This wave of mitoses develops later than that which occurs in unligated liver tissue. The findings are considered to represent a situation in which haemodynamic effects have been excluded from the development of hepatocyte proliferation. They support the contention that the hepatic proliferative response is, in part at any rate, effected by a humoral mechanism.