Regeneration of Liver Tissue Following Partial Hepatectomy in Parabiotic Rats

Abstract

When one rat of a parabiotic pair was partially hepatectomized, the unoperated liver of its partner increased in wet wt. and in the number of hepatic cells. The growth stimulus causing this hypertrophy of liver tissue must have been a factor carried in the blood from the operated animal to the unoperated liver, and the latter responded to this stimulus just as does an operated liver. No significant difference was observed between the rate of regeneration of livers in lobectomized parabions and in lobectomized single animals.