Published in:
Open Access
01-01-2004 | Proceedings
Ultrastructural characterization of the death process of hepatocytes in neonatal mouse liver
Authors:
Kazunobu Sasaki, Yuji Sonoda, Ichiro Kumano, Masumi Suda
Published in:
Comparative Hepatology
|
Special Issue 1/2004
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Excerpt
Hematopoiesis in mouse fetal liver starts at 10 days of gestation and begins to decline after 15 days of gestation [
1]. During postnatal hematopoietic involution, hepatocyte volume rapidly increases, and four types of specialized junctions; i.e., adherens junctions, desmosomes, tight junctions and gap junctions, appear to be fully developed in liver cells [
2]. Neonatal livers examined by the TUNEL method contain numerous positive cells. Fetal liver contains cells undergoing apoptosis [
3], and the majority of dying cells are hematopoietic cells. However, in addition, a few TUNEL-positive hepatocytes are observed in neonatal livers. The aim of this ultrastructural study was to clarify the hepatocyte death processes in mouse neonates. …