The caudate processus hepatic vein: a boundary hepatic vein between the caudate lobe and the right liver.

Objective: This study was conducted to find the boundary vein indicating the intersegmental plane between the caudate lobe and the adjacent liver segments.

Summary Background Data: Major hepatic veins of the human liver commonly run through the intersegmental plane and are widely used for the landmarks to define the boundary of both sides of liver segments. As the caudate lobe is a small independent unit of the liver separate from the right and left livers, the existence of the boundary hepatic vein to the adjacent liver segments has been expected.

Close relation between the inferior vena cava ligament and the caudate lobe in the human liver.

Background/purpose: This study was conducted to clarify the real relation between the inferior vena cava (IVC) ligament and the caudate lobe in the human liver and also to elucidate their surgical importance in liver surgery.

Methods: Specimens obtained from 20 adult cadaveric livers were submitted for the study. Histological structures of the IVC ligament and its relationship to the caudate lobe and the IVC were microscopically investigated.

Zebrafish protocadherin 10 is involved in paraxial mesoderm development and somitogenesis.

Here, we present the first report of the molecular cloning of zebrafish protocadherin 10 (Pcdh10, OL-protocadherin) and describe its functional analyses in the development of segmental plate. Epitope-tagged Pcdh10 expressed in embryos was localized on cell peripheries of adjacent cells. In situ hybridization showed that pcdh10 was expressed in the paraxial mesoderm (PAM) and developing somites, and in the pineal body, the diencephalon, and the vicinity of otocysts.

Morphogenesis of an anomalous ligamentum venosum terminating in the superior left hepatic vein in a human liver.

Background/purpose: We aimed to clarify the morphogenesis of an anomalous ligamentum venosum terminating in the trunk of the superior left hepatic vein, because the ligamentum venosum ordinarily terminates into the root of the left hepatic vein or directly into the inferior vena cava.

Methods: We examined an anomalous ligamentum venosum found in the cadaveric liver of an 84-year-old Japanese woman.

Results: The ligamentum venosum in this liver was not found in the usual course, the fissure for the ligamentum venosum.

Clusters of VIP-36-positive vesicles between endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus in GH3 cells.

The vesicular integral membrane protein VIP36 belongs to the family of animal lectins and may act as a cargo receptor trafficking certain glycoproteins in the secretory pathway. Immunoelectron microscopy of GH3 cells provided evidence that endogenous VIP36 is localized mainly in 70-100-nm-diameter uncoated transport vesicles between the exit site on the ER and the neighboring cis-Golgi cisterna. The thyrotrophin-releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation and treatment with actin filament-perturbing agents, cytochalasin D or B or latrunculin-B, caused marked aggregation of the VIP36-positive vesicles and the appearance of a VIP36-positive clustering structure located near the cis-Golgi cisterna.

Localization of VIP36 in the post-Golgi secretory pathway also of rat parotid acinar cells.

VIP36 (36-kD vesicular integral membrane protein), originally purified from Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells, belongs to a family of animal lectins and may act as a cargo receptor. To understand its role in secretory processes, we performed morphological analysis of the rat parotid gland. Immunoelectron microscopy provided evidence that endogenous VIP36 is localized in the trans-Golgi network, on immature granules, and on mature secretory granules in acinar cells.

Plectin tethers desmin intermediate filaments onto subsarcolemmal dense plaques containing dystrophin and vinculin.

Plectin is a versatile cytoskeletal linker protein that preferentially localizes at interfaces between intermediate filaments and the plasma membrane in muscle, epithelial cells, and other tissues. Its deficiency causes muscular dystrophy with epidermolysis bullosa simplex. To better understand the functional roles of plectin beneath the sarcolemma of skeletal muscles and to gain some insights into the underlying mechanism of plectin-deficient muscular dystrophy, we studied in vivo structural and molecular relationships of plectin to subsarcolemmal cytoskeletal components, such as desmin, dystrophin, and vinculin, in rat skeletal muscles.

Reproposal for Hjortsjo's segmental anatomy on the anterior segment in human liver.

Background: A minimum, but necessary amount, of cancer-containing liver tissue is to be excised in patients who have poor liver function. To achieve that goal of excision, a limited hepatic resection has been carried out. However, performing subsegmentectomy of the anterior segment according to the conventional segmental anatomy introduced by Healey and Schroy or Couinaud is difficult.