Fig. 1.

Results of studies of fluorescein transport in the livers of rats 42 days following sham surgery (A) or 5/6th nephrectomy (5/6N; B). Micrographs show projections of image volumes collected from the livers of living rats at the indicated times after perfusion. Imaged areas are 224 μm across. Graphs show quantifications of mean fluorescence (± SE) measured in the cytosol (○), canaliculi (X), and adjacent sinusoid (●) of 22 hepatocytes (A, sham-operated) and 31 hepatocytes (B, 5/6th nephrectomy). C: assay sensitivity is demonstrated, which shows results obtained 15 min after intravenous injection of taurolithocholate, an established inhibitor of hepatocyte transport. As shown in both the micrographs and the associated graph, uptake is profoundly slowed, and secretion is essentially blocked with canalicular fluorescence exceeding cytosolic levels only slightly and slowly.