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Description

The gallbladder is a small, distensible pouch-like organ that concentrates and stores bile produced by the liver that helps break down dietary fats. Bile flows out of the liver via hepatic ducts that join with the cystic duct, which conveys bile to and from the gall bladder. Gallbladder is derived from the foregut endoderm during embryonic development. In an un-distended state, its mucosa appears to be thrown into many folds. Its lumen is lined with a high columnar epithelium. This epithelial layer rests on a highly vascularized lamina propria. The biliary epithelium shows a morphological heterogeneity that is strictly associated with a variety of functions performed at the different levels of the biliary tree. These epithelial cells are also involved in absorption of water and inorganic salts and help to concentrate bile. The connective tissue wall of gallbladder contains abundant elastic fibers and layers of smooth muscles that run obliquely. Between the smooth muscle layers and serosa lies a thick layer subserosal layer of connective tissue. The availability of antibodies that preferentially mark cell populations within the extrahepatic biliary system are useful for identification and classification of gallbladder cells in relation to bile physiology, gallstone formation, cell plasticity and renewal, metaplasia, and tumor formation. Clone hBG6 is reported to detect mucosal epithelium, subset of lamina propria, peribiliary glands and surrounding connective tissues. (Ref.: Galivo, FH., et al. (2015). Stem Cell Res. 15(1), 172-181).