ScienceAsia 32 (2006): 355-359 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2006.32.355

Localization of Glutamine Synthetase in Adult and Fetal Liver of the Tree Shrew (Tupaia belangeri)

Somluk Asuvapongpatana^a*, Kanokpan Wongprasert^a and Wouter H. Lamers^b

 
ABSTRACT: The adult and prenatal tree shrew’s liver consists of organized plates of hepatocytes, arranged as single cell layers separated by sinusoidal capillaries. Each hepatic lobule appears irregular in shape rather than hexagonal. Portal tracts, including those in prenatal animals, contain a distinct portal vein. Immunohistochemical analysis of hepatic tissues revealed a similar distribution of glutamine synthetase (GS) protein in both fetuses and adults. GS was absent from the periportal hepatocytes. The gene was strongly expressed in only a single, continuous layer of hepatocytes surrounding the central vein, expressed as a discontinuous, patchy pattern around the smaller sublobular veins, and was absent from the hepatocytes surrounding the thick-walled sublobar and hepatic veins. The changing expression pattern of GS around the sublobar veins suggests that the sinusoids near the wall of the larger efferent veins no longer drain to these vessels directly.

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^a Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
^b AMC Liver Center, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 69-71, 1105 BK, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

* Corresponding author, E-mail: scskt@mahidol.ac.th

Received 28 Nov 2005, Accepted 24 May 2006