The liver regeneration of land snail Helix lucorum

Abstract

Study of regenerative peculiarities in organisms standing on the various steps of phylogenesis is important in order to establish the common biological meaning and basic pattern of regeneration.The aim of the work was to study the regeneration characters of the mollusc liver so called hepatopancreas which is the analogue of vertebrate liver.Experiments were carried out on a land snail Helix lucorum using the experimental model elaborated by us. The transcriptional activities within the liver cell nuclei were studied using by test‐system of RNA‐synthesis. To evaluate the mitotic activity of the liver tissue 5–7 μm paraffin sections were used under the light microscope.The rhythmic character of RNA‐synthesis was revealed in the liver cells of intact snail during the day. The live resection induced the growth control genes activation like in rodents. The peak of transcriptional activity of these genes was appeared at 9th hour after the operation. Thereby the first peak of mitotic activity within the liver tissue was observed at 27th hour after the operation. The liver mass was regenerated after a week from the resection. The quantitative correlation of the main cell types (digestive, calcium and excretory ‐ 8:1:1) within the liver lobes remained stable.On the basis of our results we conclude that the initial stages of reparative processes carry the similar character in phylogenetically distant organisms.