Why is it possible to perform a liver transplant using just a small part of a donor’s liver, but for other organs (kidney, heart, etc) the donor would have to donate the whole organ?
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Some things work the same when you divide them up and some don’t. When you’re cleaning the house, a smaller piece of sponge works the same way as a whole sponge, but one part of a spray bottle doesn’t work the same as a whole spray bottle.
Liver donor here: It’s not a small part, it’s 2/3 of the donor liver. They left me 1/3 and gave the person I donated to the larger portion to help ensure that it survived. Both pieces grow to about 90% of the original size, but not 100% due to some scar tissue that forms from the dissection.
The liver is the only organ that can regrow like that, even the skin would have a huge amount of scar tissue without a graft if you took off a legs worth of skin at once.
(My numbers are from the early 2k’s when I donated, if it’s changed since then, I’m sure someone will correct me.)
The liver is just a growth of stuff. A lump of cells that can do its job in my shape or size. Nothing complicated about how it works. All it does is exist while blood goes through it.
I mean come on….just look at the organs. What should a part of a heart be able to do? If you dont transplant the structures that are needed for the Organ to do its Job….then how should it work? The liver has the same strucures everywhere in it. All it needs to work is blood.
Livers can regenerate unlike your organs. If we cut a small piece of the liver let’s say 5%. Your liver would be able to grow that 5% back with some BS accuracy
While your other organs can’t.
Praise The Liver. Rejoice In The Liver
It’s amazing that the ancient Greeks may have known about this ability of the liver growing back as its referenced in two myths. The stories of Promethus and Tityus both feature the livers being removed and regrowing.
There’s also a Babylonian story following the same theme.
Actually, looking into it, the liver has attracted a lot of attention over the ages!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6078213/
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