Hepatobiliary System Flashcards
Surface anatomy of liver
Lives within chest where rib’s protect
Ligamentum teres
Remnants of the umbilical vein of foetus that would have come from umbilicus to falciform ligament (which is a fold of the peritoneum) and joined with the left portal vein
Describe the inflow (blood supply) of the liver
- Hepatic artery- 25% of blood
- Portal vein- 75% of blood
What is the purpose of blood delivered to the liver by the Portal Vein?
It supplies the liver with metabolic substrates- is the first organ to do so
Processes any ingested substances- detoxifies toxins
What is the purpose of blood delivered to the liver by the Hepatic Artery?
Supply oxygenated blood to the liver
Describe the outflow of the liver
- Bile that liver produces that comes out of common bile duct
- 3 hepatic veins take blood out to inferior vena cava which goes straight into heart
How many hepatic segments are there
8
Micro morphology of liver
Has two lobules the portal and hepatic. They are hexagonal structures and each corner has a portal triad
Portal triads co gain branch of hepatic artery and portal vein and bile duct
Hepatic lobules have central vein in the middle and portal has bile duct
Centre of the lobule is the central vein. Outline the drainage of a hepatic lobule
Hepatic lobule collects blood from the hepatic sinusoids → hepatic veins → systemic venous system
Within lobule there are rows of hepatocytes. What does each side of the row of hepatocytes face?
Within lobules there are rows of hepatocytes (yellow)- each has a sinusoid-facing side (blue) to pick up stuff from blood & bile canaliculi-facing side (green) to make bile by taking nutrients, processing it and shifting it across to the biliary canaliculi
Hepatic artery
Brings oxygen rich blood into liver support hepatocytes
Portal vein
Mixed venous blood from GIT (carrying nutrients, bacteria, toxins) and spleen (waste products) come to it
Hepatocytes process nutrients, detoxify blood and excrete waste
Bile duct
Bile produced by hepatocytes drains into bile canaliculi (green) which join with cholangiocyte-lined bile ducts around lobule perimete
What is the micro-function of the liver?
Acinus which is a functional unit of liver. Diamond shaped consisting of 1/6 of 2 adjacent lobules and is between 2 triads
Blood flow
Bile flow
Describe the 3 zone model of the acinus
- Blood comes into hepatic acinus via point A (portal triad)
- Blood drains out via point B (central vein)
- Hepatocytes in zone 1 receives early exposure to blood contents- both good like O2 and bad like toxins
- Zone 2 has intermediate O2 and intermediate toxin risk
- Zone 3 has low O2 and low toxin risk- this is where we see liver damage if liver ischaemia happens
Sinusoidal endothelial cells, describe their structure & their function
- No basement membrane
- Fenestrated (discontinuous endothelium)
- Allow lipids and large molecule movement to and from hepatocytes
Kuppfer cells, what are they and what is their function?
- They are sinusoidal macrophage cells
- Attached to endothelial cells
- They do phagocytosis to eliminate and detoxify substances arriving in liver from portal circulation
Hepatic stellate cells aka perisinusoidal cells, what are their 2 functions?
- Found in space of disse
- Exist in dormant state
- Store Vit A in liver cytosolic droplets
- Activated in response to liver damage and proliferate, chemotactic and deposit collagen in ECM, (they act like fibroblasts)
Hepatocytes, summarise the main hepatocyte functions
- 80% of liver mass and are cubical
- Metabolic and catabolic → synthesis and utilisation of carbs, lipids, proteins
- Secretory and excretory → synthesis and secretion of proteins (e.g. albumin), bile, waste
- Detoxification and immunological functions → breakdown of ingested pathogens and drug processing
Cholangiocytes, what do they secrete into bile (2)?
Secrete HCO3- and H2O into bile
Carb metabolism terms
- What is glycolysis?
- Anaerobic conversion of glucose → lactate (RBCs, renal medulla, skeletal muscle)
- Aerobic oxidation of glucose → (CNS, heart, skeletal muscle, most organs)
- Glycogenesis?Synthesis of glycogen from glucose (liver and muscle)
- Glycogenolysis?Breakdown of glycogen to glucose
- Gluconeogenesis?Production of glucose from non-sugar molecules:
- List 3 non-sugar molecules that can be used to produce glucose via gluconeogenesisAmino acids (from liver and renal cortex)Lactate (from anaerobic glycolysis in RBCs and muscles)Glycerol (lipolysis)
- What is the name of the process where lactate from muscles is transported to liver and converted to glucose to then return to muscles to be metabolised back into lactate?Cori Cycle
- Outline the reactions of the Cori CycleLactate produced via anaerobic glycolysis in a muscle cell (myocyte) is transported to the liver and is converted to pyruvate via lactate dehydrogenasePyruvate then converted to glucose via gluconeogenesis, releasing 6 ATP in the processGlucose via glycolysis to pyruvate → lactate in muscle cells and the cycle starts over again!https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/e43625ef-bce4-4504-a0e5-796d012b683b/Untitled.png
- What is the name of the process where lactate from muscles is transported to liver and converted to glucose to then return to muscles to be metabolised back into lactate?Cori Cycle
- List 3 non-sugar molecules that can be used to produce glucose via gluconeogenesisAmino acids (from liver and renal cortex)Lactate (from anaerobic glycolysis in RBCs and muscles)Glycerol (lipolysis)
- Lipolysis?Breakdown of triglycerides to glycerol and FFAs
- Lipogenesis?
How are non-essential amino acids made by liver?
- Through transamination- different keto acids can be converted into multiple amino acids depending on the transaminase enzyme
- alpha-keto glutarate → glutamate, proline, arginine GAP
- Pyruvate → alanine, valine, leucine LAV
- Oxaloacetate → aspartate, methionine, lysine LAM
What problem does glucose alanine cycle solve
Muscle can potentially utilise amino acids to produce glucose for energy but to convert pyruvate to glucose requires energy and to remove nitrogen as urea requires energy
This cycle transfers the problem to the liver