Dynamics of Liver Development in Dandarawi Chicken

The present work was carried out on 50 chick embryo of Dandarawi chicken collected from Assiut University Farm at a 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19 day of prehatching life. At the 3rd day of incubation, the hepatic diverticulum gave dorsal and ventral parts in relation to the ductus venosus. At the 7th day, the dorsal and ventral parts became the left and right lobes respectively where the gall bladder was located on visceral surface of the right lobe and a transverse fissure dividing the left lobe into dorsal and ventral parts. Also, the vitelline veins caudal to the liver anastomosed together forming the portal vein, which gave off left portal branch to the left lobe of liver and continued as right portal branch to the right lobe. At the 9th day, the right lobe was longer and higher than the left one where the right lobe was in contact dorsally with the mesonephros and the left one was separated from the mesonephros by the glandular stomach. At the 11th day, the interlobar fissure was occupied mainly by the umbilical vein. At the 13th day, the parietal surface of the two lobes was related to the heart and body wall and the gall bladder increased in size and extended laterally. At the 15th day, the cranial end of the right lobe had three processes dorsal, middle and ventral but the cranial end of the left lobe had two processes dorsal and ventral. The duct system of the right lobe was hepatocystic and cystoenteric, but that of the left was hepatoenteric duct.