Fig. 4

Dynamic cell rearrangement is a central part of injury-induced biliary network aggregation. (A-H) tg(tp1:H2B-mCherry)-positive nuclei (magenta) serve as a proxy for biliary network remodelling during ablation and regeneration (N=2, n>3); 10 µm masked maximum intensity projections are shown. Insets in B,E,G show high-magnification images of the respective boxed areas. Yellow arrowheads indicate mCherryhigh nuclei. (I) Distribution of the nearest neighbour distances displayed by mCherryhigh nuclei populations in controls and following LiverZap ablation (N=2, n>3); C, control; M, mild; S, severe. (J) Schematic showing the sequence for the live-imaging experiment. (K-R) Selected frames from time-lapse imaging (Movie 2) of tg(tp1:eGFP)-expressing BECs (green) in control (K,O) and LiverZap-ablated (L-N,P-R) livers. BECs exhibit dynamic cellular behaviours including cell aggregation (L,P), and loss (M,Q) and gain (N,R) of new cell–cell contacts during the phase in which hepatocytes die; cell body/nuclear movements in Movie 3 of tg(tp1:H2B-mCherry) similarly indicate BEC rearrangement (N=2, n=4). Arrowheads indicate cell behaviour shown in each category; magenta asterisks mark the same cell across the entire timelapse. Error bars represent s.d. Scale bars: 40 µm (A-H); 10 µm (B,E,G, insets); 20 µm (K-R).