Abstract
Bile is excreted by the hepatocytes in the bile canaliculi and flows via the canals of Hering into the intrahepatic bile ducts. See Chap. 1 for more details on liver anatomy. The latter drain the bile to the intestine via the extrahepatic biliary tract, which consists of hepatic ducts, cystic duct, gallbladder, and common bile duct. All segments of the biliary tract are delineated by cholangiocytes, a specialized epithelial cell type that modifies the composition of the bile when it transits through the ducts. An independent chapter describing biliary epithelial cells is included in the textbook (see Chap. 4). Within the liver, the biliary tree forms a branched network in which the ducts are classified with respect to the lobular architecture into ductules and interlobular ducts [1]; an alternative view which takes the functional heterogeneity of the cholangiocytes into account classifies the bile ducts according to their size [2–4].
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Acknowledgments
Work by the author is supported by the Inter university Attraction Poles Program (Belgian Science Policy), the Fund for Scientific Medical Research (Belgium), the D.G. Higher Education and Scientific Research of the French Community of Belgium, and the Alphonse and Jean Forton Fund.
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Lemaigre, F.P. (2011). Bile Duct Development and Biliary Differentiation. In: Monga, S. (eds) Molecular Pathology of Liver Diseases. Molecular Pathology Library, vol 5. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7107-4_15
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