Baseline volume data of human liver parenchymal cell.

Normal human liver fragments obtained through intra surgical needle biopsies from five selected hospital cases were fixed in glutaraldehyde and subsequently in osmium tetroxide and embedded in Araldite. These samples were studied in semithin sections under light microscopy. Stereological methods applied on photomicrographs were used to estimate the hepatocyte nuclear volume, the nuclear and cytoplasmic volume densities as well as the hepatocyte numerical density in the liver intermediate lobular zone. The average absolute volume of the mean hepatocyte in the intermediate lobular zone is 2850 +/- 99.9 microns 3. In one cubic centimeter of this zone there are 233 x 10(6) +/- 81.57 parenchymal cells.