SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS 



Abstracts of Communications. 



One hundred fourth meeting. 



College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, January si, 

 IQ20. President Calkins in the chair. 



38 (1498) 



The relation of the portal blood to liver maintenance. 

 By Peyton Rous and Louise D. Larimore. 



[From the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.] 



The occlusion of portal branches to a portion of the rabbit's 

 liver leads to a progressive and ultimately complete atrophy of 

 the parenchyma in the region deprived of portal blood and to 

 hypertrophy of the hepatic tissue elsewhere, which receives such 

 blood in excess. Three fourths of the liver may thus be reduced 

 to a fibrous tag within two months, while the remaining fourth 

 attains the bulk of the entire original organ. The atrophy is 

 simple, unaccompanied by obvious degenerative changes or by 

 the least connective tissue replacement. More important, it is 

 conditional in nature, failing to progress when the bile duct from 

 the proliferating liver tissue is ligated and hypertrophy checked 

 in this way. 



Preliminary experiments indicate that these facts hold for 

 the dog, though the changes go on more slowly in the canine liver. 

 After three months the tissue deprived of portal blood has dimin- 

 ished to about one third of its original bulk. That such atrophy 

 is conditional is proven by its relative failure to occur in the 

 absence of a compensating parenchyma, as when the portal stream 

 is completely diverted from the whole liver by way of an Eck 

 fistula. 



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