Abstract
The histopathological process of experimental liver cirrhosis induced by long term oral administration of furfural was investigated. The cell kinetic study of hepatic cells during this experiment was also carried out using BrdU-anti-BrdU method. From 60th experimental day, potal fibrosis and pericellular fibrosis in the vicinity of periportal areas appeared. In the 90th experimental day, the liver showed macro-scopically whitish granular appearance corresponsing to histological bridging fibrosis. Thereafter porto-portal and porto-central fibrosis extensively progressed followed by formation of apparent pseudolobule in the 150th experimental day. BrdU immunohistochemical lebeling indices of hepatic cells in the experimental groups were caliculated 2-4% which were significantly higher than those in control animals. These observation revealed that the process of this experimental hepatic injury consisted not only of simple fibrosis but of concomittant hepatic parenchymal cell proliferation with a similarility to human liver cirrhosis. It is suggested that furfural induced liver cirrhosis is an usuful experimental model for analysing developmental process of human post hepatitic cirrhosis.
