The hepatic tissue spaces.

In a controlled study concerned with the site of intrahepatic lymph formation, liver tissue from normal dogs, cats, rats and from cats with ligated hepatic lymph vessels, was subjected to light and electron microscopy. It was found that the periportal space named after Mall by whom it had been described, represents an interstitial gap of submicroscopic size. It is bordered on the one side by the hepatocytes of the limiting plate and on the other by the connective tissue fibres and processes of the connective tissue cells of the portal canal. The relationships between the perisinusoidal (Disse) space and the periportal tissue-gap have been clarifed and their role in the formation of hepatic lymph is discussed.