The experiments made by Ponfick (’90) on the regeneration of the liver
in dogs and in rabbits gave the most striking results. Ponfick found
after removal of a fourth, or of a half, or even, in a few successful
operations, of three-fourths of the liver, that, in the course of four
or five weeks, the volume of the remaining part increased, and in the
most extreme case, to three times that of the piece that had been left
in the body. The first changes were found to have begun as early as
thirty hours after the operation, when the liver cells had begun to
divide. The maximum number of dividing cells was found about the seventh
day, and then decreased from the twentieth to the twenty-fifth day, but
cells were found dividing even on the thirtieth day. These dividing
cells appeared everywhere throughout the liver, and were no more
abundant at the cut-edges than elsewhere. There takes place, in
consequence, an increase in the volume of the liver, rather than a
replacement of the part that is removed. The increase takes place in the
cells of the old part, the lobules swelling up to two, three, or even
four times their former size. No new liver lobules seem be formed. The
old tubules of the liver also become larger, owing to an increase in the
number of their cells. Since the change takes place in the old part, and
is due to an increase in size of the lobules, tubes, etc., the process
is spoken of as one of hypertrophy rather than of regeneration.
Kretz found a case in which the entire parenchyma of the liver seemed to
have been destroyed, presumably by a poison from some micro-organism,
and later a regeneration of the tissue had taken place. If this
conclusion is correct, it shows that sometimes an internal organ may
meet with an injury that does not directly destroy the rest of the body,
and the animal may survive.
The regeneration of the salivary gland of the rabbit described by
Ribbert is another example of an internal organ that can seldom be
injured, and yet can be replaced after artificial removal. Weismann
(’93) has recorded an experiment in which half of a lung of triton was
cut off. After fourteen months the lung had not been restored in four
individuals, and in one “it was doubtful whether a growth of the lung
had not taken place, but even in this case it had not recovered its
long, pointed form.”
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