Fig 1. Schematic representation of the multi-scale liver architecture.

The human liver is divided grossly into four parts or lobes. The four lobes are the right lobe, the left lobe, the caudate lobe, and the quadrate lobe. Seen from the front the liver is divided into two lobes: the right lobe and the left lobe. It is further divided in eight functionally independent segments based in the the Couinaud classification of liver anatomy. At the microscopic (histological) scale, the liver is organized in repetitive functional units called liver lobules, which take the shape of polygonal prisms (typically hexagonal in cross section). Each lobule is mainly constituted by hepatocytes and it is centered on a branch of the hepatic vein called the central vein which is interconnected with the interlobular portal triads: the hepatic artery (red), the portal vein (blue), bile duct (green).