Recent development of improved tools and methods to analyse tissues at the three-dimensional level has expanded our capacity to investigate morphogenesis of foetal liver. Here, we review the key morphogenetic steps during liver development, from the prehepatic endoderm stage to the postnatal period, and consider several model organisms while focussing on the mammalian liver. We first discuss how the liver buds out of the endoderm and gives rise to an asymmetric liver. We next outline the mechanisms driving liver and lobe growth, and review morphogenesis of the intra- and extrahepatic bile ducts; morphogenetic responses of the biliary tract to liver injury are discussed. Finally, we describe the mechanisms driving formation of the vasculature, namely venous and arterial vessels, as well as sinusoids.

中文翻译：

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肝脏发育：深入了解器官和组织形态发生

在三维水平上分析组织的改进工具和方法的最新发展扩大了我们研究胎肝形态发生的能力。在这里，我们回顾了肝脏发育过程中的关键形态发生步骤，从肝前内胚层阶段到出生后阶段，并在关注哺乳动物肝脏的同时考虑了几种模式生物。我们首先讨论肝脏如何从内胚层中萌芽并产生不对称肝脏。我们接下来概述了驱动肝脏和叶生长的机制，并回顾了肝内外胆管的形态发生；讨论了胆道对肝损伤的形态发生反应。最后，我们描述了驱动脉管系统形成的机制，即静脉和动脉血管，以及正弦曲线。