Abstract
Carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury is a thoroughly studied model for regeneration and fibrosis in rodents. Nevertheless, its pattern of liver fibrosis is frequently misinterpreted as portal type. To clarify this, we show that collagen type IV+ “streets” and α-SMA+ cells accumulate pericentrally and extend to neighbouring central areas of the liver lobule, forming a ‘pseudolobule’. Blood vessels in the center of such pseudolobules are portal veins as indicated by the presence of bile duct cells (CK19+) and the absence of pericentral hepatocytes (glutamine synthetase+). It is critical to correctly describe this pattern of fibrosis, particulary for metabolic zonation studies.
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SH conducted the study, acquisited the data, and wrote manuscript. AB, CM, and FAM acquisited the data and discussed the results. JGH and SD provided supervisory support and corrected manuscript. All authors read the final version of the paper. Both JGH and SD are equally contributed.
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The authors declare that they do not have anything to disclose regarding funding or conflict of interest with respect to this manuscript.
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This study was supported by the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) Project LiSyM (Grant PTJ-FKZ: 031L0043). FM receives support from Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung.
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Hammad, S., Braeuning, A., Meyer, C. et al. A frequent misinterpretation in current research on liver fibrosis: the vessel in the center of CCl4-induced pseudolobules is a portal vein. Arch Toxicol 91, 3689–3692 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-017-2040-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-017-2040-8