Vascular alterations in the liver of rats with extrahepatic biliary obstruction: An electron and fluorescent microscopic study

Abstract

In the 6 weeks which follow the induction of total extrahepatic cholestasis in rats, vascular lesions develop in capillaries, lymphatics, and sinusoids in the granulation tissue around the newformed ductules and in the adjacent peripheral parts of lobules. The lesions correspond in distribution to the biliary necroses which are found in rats after ligation of the common bile duct. The principal change is a disturbance of endothelial and Kupffer cell hydration, which leads to a narrowing vascular of lumina and is followed by stasis, hyperplasia, and hypertrophy of Kupffer cells and by secondary alterations of parenchymal liver cells. We have suggested that the necrosis may be the result of the ischaemia, perhaps in association with regurgitation of bile constituents into the interior of hepatocytes because of disturbance of the selective permeability of their cell membranes. The development of a prominent endoplasmic reticulum in Kupffer cells after ligation of the common bile duct, was related to the presence of a material staining positively with rabbit anti-rat gamma globulin both in the Kupffer cells and in biliary epithelial cells. Further investigations are required to probe the nature of this material, and its significance in the evolution of the biliary necroses.