Towards the Study of Liver Failure: Protocol for a 90% Extended Hepatectomy in Mice

Abstract

Studies have shown that extended hepatectomy mimics post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) and could also be used to study other small-for-flow syndromes. Extended hepatectomy can be defined as the removal of more than 70% of liver volume. At the molecular level, there seems to be a delayed entrance to the cell cycle, and thus liver dysfunction ensues. Therefore, there is an imperious need to study the mechanisms of such delay to understand how it can be regulated. While the classical 70% hepatectomy model to study liver regeneration has been previously described thoroughly, there are no protocols describing the surgical procedure for a 90% extended hepatectomy (90% EHx). Therefore, we here describe a detailed and reproducible protocol for such model, defining specific aspects that must be considered as well as the most common complications and troubleshooting strategies.