Intrasplenic hepatocyte transplantation in rats with experimental liver injury: morphological and morphometric studies.

Isolated rat hepatocytes were transplanted into the splenic parenchyma of syngeneic animals. The effects on the degree of colonization by the transplanted cells of three forms of experimental liver injury in recipient animals were studied. Significant colonization was observed in animals with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced injury combined with portacaval shunt (PCS) and in animals with common bile duct (CBD) ligation but not in control animals or in animals with CCl4-induced injury alone. Transplanted cells in the CCl4/PCS group resembled normal hepatocytes. In contrast, in the CBD group, the intrasplenic hepatocytes exhibited a pattern of 'ductular metaplasia' similar to that observed in the obstructed liver of the recipients. Transplanted syngeneic hepatocytes can thus proliferate in the spleen in response to liver injury in the recipient. The morphological appearances of the transplanted cells can be modified depending on the nature of the liver injury.