Liver Regeneration

Abstract

A striking property of the liver is its unique ability to regenerate and thereby restore its original mass after tissue loss. Major progress has been achieved during the last 50 years in understanding the mechanisms involved in controlling this process. However, this phenomenon has been discussed since Greek mythology: The Titan Prometheus stole the fire from Zeus and brought it to mankind. Zeus punished him by chaining Prometheus to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains. Every day an eagle came and ate from his liver, which regenerated overnight. The liver has a large metabolic task to perform and normally hepatocyte proliferation in the liver is a rare event. However, liver regeneration is induced following different mechanisms of injury. Examples in humans are liver regeneration after acute liver damage from viral infection or following liver resection. Moreover, in recent years liver transplantation and especially split liver transplantation have become very important areas of research because of the shortage of donor livers. Therefore animal models to study liver regeneration are of direct relevance to better understand the physiologic mechanisms that occur in liver transplant patients. Additionally, the direct clinical application of split liver transplantation allows further proof of the concepts that have been gathered in animal models.