Microcirculation of the extrahepatic biliary tree: a scanning electron microscopy study of corrosion casts

The microvascular arrangement of the extrahepatic biliary tree of the rat was studied by light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of vascular corrosion casts. The plexus that encircles the lumen of the common bile duct, observed by LM, showed a network of vessels of different diameter situated under the epithelium in the lamina propria. Parallel SEM observations of the same structure demonstrated the presence of 2 main vascular layers: an outer arterial and venous layer, corresponding to the larger vessels seen by LM, and a richer inner capillary layer just under the epithelium. On the luminal part of the corrosion casts, there were many round avascular empty pits that corresponded to the presence of small acinar glands distributed along the epithelium of the common bile duct. The rich subepithelial capillary network present in the rat, an animal without a gallbladder, may play an important role in the reabsorption of water and solutes from bile. Moreover, in pathological conditions (e.g. portal hypertension), liver blood flow may take a preferential collateral route through the intrahepatic peribiliary plexus into the relatively large diameter vessels of the extrahepatic peribiliary plexus because of the continuity of the 2 plexi.