Liver regeneration 3: Regulation of signal transduction during liver regeneration

Abstract

The liver has a tremendous capacity to regenerate. For example, after extensive hepatic resection, remaining hepatocytes proliferate to restore the mass of the organ within days to weeks. This proliferative response is fascinating because hepatocytes rarely replicate in the healthy adult liver. Instead, these cells perform highly specialized functions and exemplify mature, terminally differentiated cells. Therefore it is somewhat surprising that the liver can repopulate while performing its many obligate, organ-specific functions. Study of the regenerating liver remnant after partial hepatectomy has helped to delineate mechanisms that regulate proliferation and liver-specific functions in individual hepatocytes, as well as those that coordinate the behaviors of different liver cell populations to balance organ growth and tissue-specific gene expression. Hence, this review will focus on inter- and intracellular signals that regulate the hepatocyte phenotype after PH.