Adult Mouse Hepatocytes Research Articles

Subsurface cisterns in mouse hepatocytes.

AbstractExtensive subsurface cisterns were commonly found beneath the apposed plasmalemmas of adjoining hepatocytes in young and adult mice. The cisterns were of two types: (1) flat cisterns, often with ribosomes on their deep surface, and (2) flattened, highly fenestrated smooth surfaced saccules, some of which were in continuity with smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Despite their frequent occurrence, the subsurface cisterns were always absent from the regions of gap or tight junctions, as well as from the periphery of bile canaliculi and cell surfaces bordering the space of Disse. The function of these cisterns remains undetermined.

Existence of hepatic cell classes and their relationship with the nuclear classes in the liver of the white mouse. A microinterferometric study.

1. Individual hepatocytes isolated from unfixed liver of the white mouse are different in their solid contents. However, they fall into weight groups that form geometrical or arithmetical progressions as 2∶4∶8∶16 and 1∶2∶3∶4∶..., depending on the mouse age. These weight groups are here named ‘cellular classes’. The hepatocytes of suckling and weaning mice are relatively small and form 4 cellular classes disposed in geometrical progression, whereas those of adult mice are heavier and form 10 or more cellular classes disposed in arithmetical progression. 2. Binuclear cells are present in all the cellular classes of the adult liver, whereas they contribute to constitute only the third and fourth cellular classes of the suckling mice liver. 3. The water-soluble contents of individual hepatocytes is constant as a percentage, being about 40 per cent of the total cell dry mass in both suckling and adult mice. 4. The nucleo-cytoplasmic weight ratio of hepatocytes in suckling and adult mice is constantly between 1∶2.8 and 1∶14.2. 5. The hepatocyte polyploidization occurs after the solid constituents of the cell have undergone an increase. So it might represent a mechanism to maintain the nucleo-cytoplasmic weight ratio within the range (1∶2.8)–(1∶14.2). 6. The developmental growth of the liver specific tissue takes place mainly owing to cell number increase from birth to 15 days of life, thenceforth owing to cellular hypertrophy. 7. In the early ages the hepatocyte physiologically enlarges by doublings of its contents, after the weaning time by subsequent additions of a constant amount of cytoplasm.