Hello Professor,

Can you highlight other functions of the liver?

With the liver being the bodies largest gland, weighing as much as 1.4kg(3lbs), it has a "variety of functions, but only one of them, the secretion of bile, contributes to digestion" (Saladin 2020). The liver is very important and its job is vital to your body. The liver regulates most chemical levels in the blood and excretes bile which helps carry away waste products from the liver. All the blood leaving the stomach and intestines passes through the liver. The liver processes this blood and breaks down, balances, and creates the nutrients and also metabolizes drugs into forms that are easier to use for the rest of the body or that are nontoxic (Johns Hopkins). The liver has 4 lobes with each lobe having an irregular opening between them, the porta hepatis, which is a point of entry for the hepatic portal vein and proper hepatic artery and a point of exit for the bile passages. The liver receives blood from two sources: about 70% from the hepatic portal vein and 30% from the hepatic arteries. The hepatic portal vein receives blood from the stomach, intestines, pancreas, and spleen, and carries it into the liver at the porta hepatis. All nutrients absorbed by the small intestine reach the liver by this route except for lipids. While there is still an abundance of other jobs that the liver does, this is just a start.

References:

Saladin, K. S., (2020). Anatomy & Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function. (9th Edition). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US).

Johns Hopkins Medicine. Liver: Anatomy and Functions. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/liver-anatomy-and-functions#:~:text=Functions%20of%20the%20liver&text=All%20the%20blood%20leaving%20the,body%20or%20that%20are%20nontoxic