Early studies in hepatocyte turnover and liver regeneration showed that the parenchymal cell, the hepatocyte, was the primary and only cell involved in tissue renewal. However, new studies of liver regeneration, hepatocarcinogenesis, liver transplantation, and various cell lines have shown that a variety of cell types participate in maintaining hepatocyte number and mass and question the dogma of the previous hierarchy of hepatocyte differentiation in vitro and in vivo.
