Clinical significance and correlation of ductular reaction in hepatobiliary diseases / 中华肝脏病杂志

ABSTRACT

Ductular reaction is a kind of repair response to biliary and hepatocellular injury, and the pathological changes include lobular bile duct hyperplasia, matrix change and inflammatory cell infiltrations. In human liver, a ductular reaction originates from the activation and proliferation of hepatic progenitor cells. The activated hepatic progenitor cells, the intermediate hepatocytes and the reactive small bile duct cells together form the cell complex of ductular reaction, which has the dual characteristics of hepatobiliary system and co-expresses the hepatocyte and cholangiocyte antigen. Ductular reaction appears in all kinds of acute and chronic hepatobiliary injury, and plays an important role in liver regeneration and repair, fibrogenesis, cirrhosis formation, and hepatobiliary cancer occurrence and development. Understanding the pathological features and pathophysiological mechanisms of ductular reaction in various clinical hepatobiliary diseases and their role in liver regeneration can provide important suggestion for further exploring new-targeted treatment approach.