A New Insight into the Relation between Microlymphatic and Microvascular Vessels in Human Liver

摘要

Summary The present immunohistochemical and immunoelectron microscopic study using a lymphatic marker podoplanin/D2-40 and a blood microvascular marker CD34 provides convincing evidence that the microlymphatics from lymphatic capillaries to relatively large lymphatic vessels are clearly distinguished from microvascular blood vessels in human liver tissue, particularly from portal venules as well as hepatic arterial capillaries, both of which it had been impossible to differentiate from the microlymphatics corresponding in size even by enzymohitochemistry. In decompensated human cirrhosis, it was clarified that in addition to the proliferated and dilated microlymphatics, there is a prominent proliferation of portal venules and hepatic arterial capillaries in the fibrous septums and in the subcapsular spaces of liver surface.