A&P II

While reading everyone's blogs, I noticed that almost every single person commented on the super organ, the liver. Since I missed the last two classes due to the horrible flu (I hope you are all staying healthy, cause trust me it sucks) I thought I would do a little research into what all the fuss is about. I was amazed at what I found, as it seems all of you were too.

I knew that the liver had the ability to regenerate itself, but I didn't know it could do it with as little as 25% of it left. This is predominantly due to the hepatocytes acting as unipotential stem cells. There is also some evidence of bipotential stem cells, called ovalocyte which exist in the Canals of Hering. These cells can differentiate into either hepatocytes or cholangiocytes (cells that line the bile ducts).

So with all of this regeneration ability, I was amazed that there could be so many pathologies involved with the liver itself. It seems if the crazy liver can mend itself, that it would be able to out-smart any malady it might encounter, but that's false.

Hepatitis, Cirrhosis, Haemochromatosis (a hereditary disease causing the accumulation of iron leading to liver damage), Wilson's disease (a hereditary disease which causes the body to retain copper), Primary sclerosing cholangitis, Primary biliary cirrhosis, Budd-Chiari syndrome (obstruction of the hepatic vein), Gilbert's syndrome (a genetic disorder of bilirubin metabolism), and Glycogen storage disease type II are just a few. I suppose that with the aid of surgery, the regeneration would be helpful in the recovery of any of these diseases, but even if they cut out 75% of the liver, does that mean they are cured, or will the new liver possess the same disease as before? And if so, is it really worth the surgery to begin with? I'm sure the regeneration process is slow...and the body probably does not function as well with a smaller liver...it must be a dangerous option.