LIVER-REGENERATION .3. REGULATION OF SIGNAL-TRANSDUCTION DURING LIVER-REGENERATION

The liver has a tremendous capacity to regenerate, For example, after extensive hepatic resection, remaining hepatocytes proliferate to rest ore the mass of the organ within days to weeks, This proliferative res ponse is fascinating because hepatocytes rarely replicate in the healt hy adult liver. Instead, these cells perform highly specialized functi ons and exemplify mature, terminally differentiated cells, Therefore i t is somewhat surprising that the liver can repopulate while performin g its many obligate, organ-specific functions, Study of the regenerati ng liver remnant after partial hepatectomy has helped to delineate mec hanisms that regulate proliferation and liver-specific functions in in dividual hepatocytes, as well as those that coordinate the behaviors o f different Liver cell populations to balance organ growth and tissue- specific gene expression, Hence, this review will focus on inter- and intracellular signals that regulate the hepatocyte phenotype after PH.