Journal
CELL SYSTEMS
Volume 4, Issue 3, Pages 277-290Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2017.02.008
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Funding
- Virtual Liver [315757]
- Liver Systems Medicine (LiSyM) initiatives - German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) [031L0038]
- BMBF [031L0044]
- European Research Council [695646]
- Max Planck Society (MPG)
- European Research Council (ERC) [695646] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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Bile, the central metabolic product of the liver, is transported by the bile canaliculi network. The impairment of bile flow in cholestatic liver diseases has urged a demand for insights into its regulation. Here, we developed a predictive 3D multi-scale model that simulates fluid dynamic properties successively from the subcellular to the tissue level. The model integrates the structure of the bile canalicular network in the mouse liver lobule, as determined by high-resolution confocal and serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, with measurements of bile transport by intravital microscopy. The combined experiment-theory approach revealed spatial heterogeneities of biliary geometry and hepatocyte transport activity. Based on this, our model predicts gradients of bile velocity and pressure in the liver lobule. Validation of the model predictions by pharmacological inhibition of Rho kinase demonstrated a requirement of canaliculi contractility for bile flow in vivo. Our model can be applied to functionally characterize liver diseases and quantitatively estimate biliary transport upon drug-induced liver injury.
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