Extended 78% Hepatectomy in a Mouse Surgical Model

Partial 2/3 hepatectomy in mice is used in research to study the liver's regenerative capacity and explore outcomes of liver resection in a number of disease models. In the classical partial 2/3 hepatectomy in mice, two of the five liver lobes, namely the left and median lobes representing approximately 66% of the liver mass, are resected en bloc with an expected postoperative survival of 100%. More aggressive partial hepatectomies are technically more challenging and hence, have seldom been used in mice. Our group has developed a mouse model of an extended hepatectomy technique in which three of the five liver lobes, including the left, median, and right upper lobes, are resected separately to remove approximately 78% of the total liver mass. This extended resection, in otherwise healthy mice, leaves a remnant liver that cannot always sustain adequate and timely regeneration. Failure to regenerate ultimately results in 50% postoperative lethality within 1 week due to fulminant hepatic failure. This procedure of extended 78% hepatectomy in mice represents a unique surgical model for the study of small-for-size syndrome and the evaluation of therapeutic strategies to improve liver regeneration and outcomes in the setting of liver transplantation or extended liver resection for cancer.