Abstract: | The lymphatic bed has been studied in 141 hepatic preparations of the man, dog and white rat. Development of obturation in the common bile duct in the man and at modelling a similar process in the animals results in essential morphological adaptive-compensatory and destructive changes in the hepatic lymphatic bed. The adaptive-compensatory reconstruction is especially well seen at initial stages of the disease. It is manifested as a total dilatation of the bed, certain reserve elements get into work, the bed capacity increases. Then certain new structural units of the bed, collateral pathways develop. When the obturational process lasts long, certain destructive changes of the hepatic lymphatic bed elements take place. The change in the relief of endotheliocytes is their most characteristic sign. With increasing age of the patients the degree of the destructive rearrangements of the hepatic lymphatic bed increases. In the experiment carried out on the animals the lymphatic outflow from the thoracic duct is determined, being an indirect index of the hepatic lymph-forming function. An essential increase of the lymph volume, several times greater than in the control, gets from the duct into the venous bed. A connection is revealed between the morphological transformations of the bed components and its drainage function. The lymphatic bed of the liver performs also an active work concerning resorption and transport of bilirubin, its content in the organ rather increases, when the common bile duct is obturated. |