Morphological Features of Human and Rat Liver and Biliary Tract Comparisons (Literary Review)

Abstract

The rat liver and biliary tract morphogenesis during prenatal development shows the stages of the organ formation similar to humans, which are continuous passing from one to another. In spite of the relatively large mass of the liver, greater number of liver lobes and absence of the gallbladder in the rat, the microscopic organization of the liver and cytophysiological features of rat and human hepatocytes are not fundamentally different. The review presents data proving homology of the liver and biliary tracts of humans and rats, which is the basis for extrapolation to humans of the results of experimental studies on laboratory rats.