BACKGROUND: The configuration and course of liver blood vessels (LBVs) are involved in the study of pathogenesis of hepatic diseases including liver cirrhosis, tissue engineering of the liver and surgical treatment of diseases of the liver and gallbladder. In the study of vascularization in tissue engineering of the liver in particular, the work we should do is to get the anatomy data of LBVs for computer-aided reconstruction of digital model of LBVs. In doing so, the casting sample of rat liver blood vessels (RLBVs) is fabricated and the data of each section of the sample is harvested.
METHODS: Liquid polymer preparation (8%-10%), which was made of chlorinated poly vinyl chloride (CPVC) as a solute, acetone as solvent and pigment, was injected into the RLBVs of 40 rats. Once acetone evaporated, the preparation solidified. When the cells and connective tissue were dissolved by hydrochloric acid, a casting sample of RLBV was left. The sample was embedded in paraffin and cut into sections. The data of each section of RLBVs was collected by digital camera.
RESULTS: In 36 rats, the casting sample of RLBVs was made successfully by this method. The diameter of the hepatic arteries varied from 0.8 to 0.2 mm, the portal veins from 2.0 to 0.1 mm, and the hepatic veins from 2.2 to 0.2 mm. In each rat, about 150 photographs of the sections of RLBVs were taken.
CONCLUSION: The method described above is feasible for getting experimental data for computer-aided reconstruction of the digital model of RLBVs.