Liver

Question 1

Describe the histological structure of the liver

Answer 1

Composed of several hundred lobules of hepatic parenchyma made of densely packed hepatocytes (usually 1 cell thick) radiating out from a central vein to the periphery of the lobule

Question 2

What are sheets of hepatocytes separated by

Answer 2

Sinusoid capillaries

Question 3

Where is the space of Disse

Answer 3

Between the sinusoids and the hepatocytes, where the liver cells are in direct contact with plasma

Question 4

What vessels do hepatic lobules contain

Answer 4

A central efferent vein and peripheral portal triads

Question 5

Where are portal triads, lymphatics and small nerve trunks found in the liver

Answer 5

In areas called portal tracts

Question 6

What forms bile canaliculi ?

Answer 6

The apical plasma membrane of supposing hepatocytes

Question 7

Give 4 features of the specialised sinusoids found between sheets of hepatocytes

Answer 7

Their lumen is wide and irregular

Open pores in the endothelium and gals between which give free access to the perisinusoidal space (Disse)

Lamina densa is poorly developed/ absent

Macrophages called Küpffer cells are anchored to sinusoidal endothelium

Question 8

What do Kupffer cells do

Answer 8

Their processes cross the sinusoids and they participate in removal of particulate material from the circulation

They are mobile and actively phagocytic