Themes of liver transplantation.

ABSTRACT: Liver transplantation was the product of five interlocking themes. These began in 1958-1959 with canine studies of then theoretical hepatotrophic molecules in portal venous blood (Theme I) and with the contemporaneous parallel development of liver and multivisceral transplant models (Theme II). Further Theme I investigations showed that insulin was the principal, although not the only, portal hepatotrophic factor. In addition to resolving long-standing controversies about the pathophysiology of portacaval shunt, the hepatotrophic studies blazed new trails in the regulation of liver size, function, and regeneration. They also targeted inborn metabolic errors (e.g., familial hyperlipoproteinemia) whose palliation by portal diversion presaged definitive correction with liver replacement. Clin

SUBMITTER: Starzl TE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4507423 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature