Following partial hepatectomy (PH) there is compensatory regeneration of the remnant liver which eventually restores hepatic mass and function. The response to PH was studied in normal BALB/c and athymic nude mice, a model of impaired liver regeneration. Following PH, nude mice demonstrated diminished peak hepatic [³H]thymidine uptake and delayed liver mass restoration through 60 h post‐PH. However, between 72–120 h there was no significant difference in mass restoration between the groups. The expression of genes associated with different stages of the cell cycle was evaluated in both models. In nude mice, there was an increase in peak expression of c‐jun transcripts, while c‐myc transcript expression was moderately attenuated. Thymidine kinase (TK) and cyclin‐dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) mRNA expression was also diminished in athymic nude mice. The results suggest that while the defect in the regenerative response of the nude mouse after PH affects events in several phases of the cell cycle, mass restoration of the liver is only delayed and not attenuated.