Interlobular bile ducts

The bile ducts commence by little passages in the liver cells which communicate with canaliculi termed intercellular biliary passages (bile capillaries). These passages are merely little channels or spaces left between the contiguous surfaces of two cells, or in the angle where three or more liver cells meet, and they are always separated from the blood capillaries by at least half the width of a liver cell. The channels thus formed radiate to the circumference of the lobule, and open into the interlobular bile ducts which run in Glisson's capsule, accompanying the portal vein and hepatic artery. These join with other ducts to form two main trunks, which leave the liver at the transverse fissure, and by their union form the hepatic duct. Structure of the Ducts.—The walls of the biliary ducts consist of a connective-tissue coat, in which are muscle cells, arranged both circularly and longitudinally, and an epithelial layer, consisting of short columnar cells resting on a distinct basement membrane.