Adrenergic innervation of the human liver. A fluorescence histochemical analysis of clinical liver biopsy specimens.

Liver biopsy specimens from 34 consecutive patients undergoing laparoscopy were processed for glyoxylic acid-induced fluorescence histochemical analysis. Most of the adrenergic nerves were located in the interlobular spaces and confined to blood vessels; no direct functional adrenergic innervation of the hepatocytes could be demonstrated. In eight cases of intrahepatic cholestasis, however, fluorescing varicose adrenergic axons were observed in patchy areas of accumulations of bile pigments. Otherwise the results were analogous in histologically normal liver tissue and in liver disease regardless of the underlying pathology. Methodological difficulties may explain some earlier contradictory results.