<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>The role of the vagus nerve in liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy was studied by comparing the
effects of hepatic branch vagotomy with those of hepatic branch sympathectomy in rats. The liver weight as a percentage of body weight decreased significantly 7 days after vagotomy compared with the controls and this was associated with a reduction in food intake. There was no difference in the liver weights between the control rats and the pair-fed vagotomized rats. Hepatic sympathectomy had no significant effect on the liver weight. The serum scores indicating hepatic function showed no difference between the control and the vagotomized rats except alkaline phosphatase. The concentration of insulin was unchanged. The number of mitotic hepatocytes remained high at 7 days after vagotomy: These
observations led us to conclude that the vagus nerve stimulates liver regeneration, and its effect depends on vagal factors directly and specifically.</p>
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HPB Surg. 1993; 6(4):277-286