The Liver as a Maid

Ever wish you had the luxury of a maid? Maybe someone who cleans up, makes dinner and even fixes a few things around the house? Sign me up! Someone able to help out with all these things so important to daily living would be a big help to us, but imagine the cost! Well, in one sense, we all have our own little maid--but it's called a liver.

The liver is crucial to the body's functions because it cleans the blood, processes nutrients from food and, among other things, builds important proteins that the body uses. Because the liver is the primary place the body clears toxins from the body (by removing them from the blood), sometimes doctors monitor the liver for signs of damage when a patient is prescribed drugs.

To help scientists understand how some drugs affect the liver, researchers at MIT have developed a model that uses real liver cells to closely resemble a working liver. I think it's amazing science! Perhaps someday this model liver will even help drug companies develop new treatments for hepatitis. To learn more about what the liver does, check out Why Is the Liver So Important?

Photo courtesy of Sanja Gjenero/stock.xchng