Structure of the Liver

The liver has three main components: **hepatocytes**, **bile canaliculi** and **hepatic sinusoids**. A hepatocyte is the liver’s main cell type, accounting for around 80 percent of the liver’s volume. These cells play a role in a wide variety of secretory, metabolic, and endocrine functions. Between adjacent hepatocytes, grooves in the cell membranes provide room for each bile canaliculus. These small ducts accumulate the bile produced by hepatocytes. From here, bile flows first into bile ductules and then into bile ducts. The bile ducts unite to form the larger right and left hepatic ducts, which themselves merge and exit the liver as the common hepatic duct. This duct then joins with the cystic duct from the gallbladder, forming the common bile duct through which bile flows into the small intestine. A hepatic sinusoid is an open, porous blood space formed by fenestrated capillaries from nutrient-rich hepatic portal veins and oxygen-rich hepatic arteries. Blood then flows through a hepatic vein into the inferior vena cava. This means that blood and bile flow in opposite directions.



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