On the Relation of the Liver Cells to the Blood-Vessels and Lymphatics
P. T. Herring, S. Simpson
1906
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences
From the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Edinburgh.) [Plates 22 and 23.] The description by Schafer (55) of a network of fine channels in the cells of the liver of the rabbit and cat which can be filled with injection material from the blood-vessels, and the confirmation of his observations in the livers of other animals as the result of our own experiments (26), have opened up several important questions concerning the minute anatomical structure of the liver. The presence of
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... acellular channels in the liver cells communicating with the blood-vessels is difficult to reconcile with the generally accepted views on the relations of the blood-vessels and lymphatics to the liver cells. Of late years several observers (Browicz (8), Schafer (55) ), have cast doubt on the presence of perivascular lymphatics in the liver lobules, and have suggested a direct supply of blood plasma from the vessels to the interior of the liver cells without interposition of lymph spaces. That the walls of the capillary blood-vessels of the liver possess a peculiar form of endothelial lining has been long recognised (Kupffer (37), Ranvier(50), and others). More recently Minot (45), from a study of the development of the liver vessels, has concluded that they are not true capillaries which have grown into the organ, but " sinusoids " which have been formed by a growth of the liver blastema into a large blood sinus, which, although having the appearance of capillaries, are actually spaces between the columns of liver cells lined by cells of an embryonic character. To resolve the question of the relationship of the blood and lymph to the liver cells, we have in many kinds of animals injected the blood-vessels with carmine gelatine, and have, in dogs and cats, injected the large lymphatics of the liver with the same material. We have also injected the bile ducts in a number of animals and have further examined sections of liver stained by special methods. The results of our observations are recorded in this paper. We are indebted to Professor Schafer for help and advice in our work, and to Mr. Richard Muir for the care with which he has executed the accompanying drawings. The expenses of the research have been defrayed
doi:10.1098/rspb.1906.0075
fatcat:z2txjwmukbd3llrkfxiefqecla