Restoration of liver mass after partial hepatectomy--implications for living donor liver transplantation

In living donor liver transplantation, the recipient liver undergoes more rapid regeneration than the remnant liver in the donor. In this study we investigated the factors which may be responsible for the difference in the regenerative response between the donor and the recipient. Long Evans rats were subjected to either partial hepatectomy (PH) or sham operation (SH) and were treated with liver cytosol (C) and cyclosporine (Cy). The rats were sacrificed at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours and 1 and 2 weeks postoperatively. The livers were removed to determine the liver weight/body weight (LW/BW) ratio and the mitotic index. The mitotic index, serum aspartate transferase (AST) and serum alanine transferase (ALT), although unchanged in the SH groups, were increased in the rats treated with PH + C + Cy, and were greater than after PH only. However LW/BW ratios increased after PH but had returned to preoperative levels by 2 weeks. The changes in LW/BW ratio were not modified by the cytosol or cyclosporine.