The ripple effect of liver transplantation.

Apart from its own intrinsic importance, liver transplantation has been the stimulus for development of better techniques of hepatic surgery and for a better understanding of hepatic physiology. A particularly important off-shoot of transplantation has been the recognition that factors (called hepatotrophic) are present in the portal blood. The nature of these factors and their influence on the liver have been discussed, as well as the clinical implications of the hepatotrophic concept.