The human body is full of wonders, and even after so many technological advancements in medical science, there is still a lot to explore in the human body.
According to a recent study published in the journal Cell Systems, the human liver is younger than the biological age of the host. The research was conducted on 33 adults between 20 and 84 after they died by German researchers.
The researchers isolated the nuclei of liver cells called hepatocytes. It is the workhorse of the human liver. Hepatocytes make the bulk of the liver, and they are responsible for a variety of tasks. From taking part in the body’s immune response to aiding with metabolism, they are important for so many things, as reported by the Washington Post.
The main aim of the research was to know if the hepatocytes are long-lived like neurons or heart cells. There have been studies conducted to know the age of the liver, but they were limited just to rodents, and thus, they didn’t give a clear idea of human livers.
During the study, the scientists found that the hepatocytes show lifelong and continuous turnover. Thus allowing the liver to remain young. The average age of the liver is about three years, irrespective of the biological age of the human body.
However, the turnover depended on the type of liver cell. The researchers found that about 95 percent of the cells with two complete sets of chromosomes turned over within a year. The 12 percent of the cell subtype that has more than one pair of chromosomes can live up to a decade.
The researchers concluded that the human body produces about 700 million hepatocytes every day, which is not a bad figure for a three-pound organ.
