Liver Bud Formation

Schematic presentation of the liver bud formation.

The first morphological sign of the embryonic liver is the formation of the hepatic diverticulum, which is an out-pocket of thickened ventral foregut epithelium situated adjacent to the developing heart. The hepatic diverticulum is lined by a basement membrane and endothelial cells.

After E9.5, the basement membrane begins to degrade and hepatoblasts migrate into the septum transversum mesenchyme (STM) to form the liver bud.