[Shunt between Disse spaces and biliary canaliculi and its pathology]

The existence and permeability of communications between Disse spaces and biliary canaliculi has been finally accepted, in spite of the socalled obstacle of the water-tight junctions. The explanation of pigmented bile secretion by filtration and reabsorption has become plausible. Whilst other subtances excreted by the bile after having been filtered at the level of the sinusoidal wall need to enter the hepatic cell to be synthesised, stocked or to take up their final shape, the bile pigments, cell debris, cross the hepatic lobule through the shunt between the Disse space and the bile canaliculi, without passing through the liver cell. These facts require us today to reconsider the physiopathology of some liver disorders, especially those accompanied by jaundice.