The human gallbladder

  • Liliana Luciano
  • Enrico Reale
Chapter
Part of the Electron Microscopy in Biology and Medicine book series (EMBM, volume 6)

Abstract

The human gallbladder (vesica fellea) is a pear-shaped sac inserted between the under surface of the right lobe of the liver and the peritoneal serous membrane. It consists of three parts or regions: the neck, body (representing the main part of the organ), and fundus (a blind end). The neck is in continuity with the cystic duct, which connects the gallbladder with the common bile duct (ductus choledochus). The lack of morphological information concerning the normal human gallbladder, especially at the level of electron microscopy, was mentioned by Wallraff [1] and remains virtually unchanged to the present day. The reason for this lies in the difficulty or even impossibility of 1) obtaining healthy organs and 2) processing them quickly enough in order to achieve a satisfactory morphology. Most of our present knowledge on the structure and function of the gallbladder stems from studies on animals.

Keywords

Mast Cell Lamina Propria Dense Body Gallbladder Wall Principal Cell 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1990

Authors and Affiliations

  • Liliana Luciano
    • 1
  • Enrico Reale
  1. 1.Medizinische Hochschule HannoverAbteilung Zellbiologie und ElektronenmikroskopieHannover 61Federal Republic of Germany

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