Experimental Aspects of Hepatic Regeneration

Abstract

AN attribute of the liver that continues to fascinate investigators is its latent capacity for growth. Mature liver cells are long-lived and, in rats and mice at least, may even survive for the adult life of the animal (approximately 1 mitosis is seen in 10,000 to 20,000 hepatocytes, about enough to keep up with the continuing body growth in these species). The simple expedient of partial hepatectomy, a well tolerated and highly reproducible operation with essentially no mortality, sets in motion a burst of astonishingly rapid growth. This growth is precisely regulated; it tapers off and finally ceases when the . . .