The liver has a
remarkable capacity to regenerate after injury and to adjust its size to
match its host. Within a week
after partial hepatectomy, which, in typical experimental settings entails surgical
removal of two-thirds of the liver, hepatic mass is back essentially to what
it was prior to surgery. Some additional interesting observations include:
These types of
observations have prompted considerable research into the mechanisms
responsible for hepatic regeneration, because understanding the processes
involved will likely assist in treatment of a variety of serious liver
diseases and may have important implications for certain types of gene
therapy. A majority of this research has been conducted using rats and
utilized the model of partial hepatectomy, but a substantial body of
confirmatory evidence has accumulated from human subjects.
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Thursday, 2 February 2012
Regeneration capacity of the liver
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