PECULIARITIES OF ACTIVATION OF COMPENSATORY-ADAPTIVE PROCESSES IN ADULT RAT LIVER CAUSED BY UNILATERAL NEPHRECTOMY

Area of Science:

• Physiology
• Hepatology
• Nephrology

Background:

• Compensatory-adaptive processes are crucial for organ function following injury.
• Unilateral nephrectomy (UN) imposes a significant functional load on remaining organs, including the liver.
• Early-stage hepatopathy following UN involves complex adaptive responses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the early compensatory mechanisms in the rat liver after unilateral nephrectomy.
• To understand the initial patterns of inter-organ compensatory-adaptive processes.
• To characterize the liver's response to functional load in the first three days post-UN.

Main Methods:

• Histological examination of rat liver tissue.
• Morphological analysis of sinusoids and hepatic plates.
• Assessment of hepatocyte proliferation and polyploidy.

Main Results:

• Minor, but visible, abnormalities in liver sinusoid and hepatic plate spatial relationships were observed.
• Increased functional load did not induce hepatocyte proliferation in the early stage.
• The liver preferentially utilized polyploidy, specifically an increase in binucleated hepatocytes (2n2x), as a compensatory mechanism.

Conclusions:

• The early liver response to unilateral nephrectomy is characterized by subtle structural changes and a lack of proliferation.
• Polyploidy, particularly the increase in binucleated cells, is a key early compensatory-adaptive strategy for the liver under functional load.
• These findings highlight the liver's unique adaptive pathways in response to nephrectomy-induced stress.