How important is the liver to us? Let's take a look at the fate of a liver

Author: Sun Yuhang and Zhou Yixi Medical College

Illustration: Sun Yuhang Xi'an Medical College

Reviewer: Xiao Xinli, Associate Professor of Xi'an Jiaotong University

I am the liver of the human body. As the saying goes, "Liver is the general's organ, from which all plans and ideas come". As such, I am like a brave and knowledgeable general in my master's body, commanding the wind and clouds, controlling the health of my master, playing an important role, and being deeply loved by my master. But I don't know since when, my master began to be addicted to alcohol, and my fate was reversed.

Act I: Birth

I am located in the upper right abdomen of the human body. From the moment I was born, I have been surrounded by many brothers and sisters, such as ribs, diaphragm, stomach, gallbladder, etc. Under the microscope, tens of thousands of liver cells form numerous liver lobules, which constitute the basic structure of my body.

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As far as I can remember, my master gave me a unique name - Liver Factory. This destined me to have a very heavy workload. I have to maintain constant blood sugar, participate in lipid metabolism, carry out biotransformation, synthesize and secrete bile... I have been working day and night just so that my master can have a healthy body.

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Time passed slowly, and in the blink of an eye, my master had grown up, but from then on, he had a special liking for alcohol. He was addicted to alcohol and could not live without it, which also brought about earth-shaking changes in my originally peaceful life.

Act II: Oppression

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As the most important organ for alcohol metabolism, my job is to convert the "toxic" substance (ethanol) in alcohol into "non-toxic" substances (acetic acid) and excrete them from the body. Little did I know that in the process of ethanol metabolism, a large number of harmful substances such as acetaldehyde and oxygen free radicals will be produced, which will have a direct toxic effect on my body and cause a large amount of fat to accumulate in my cells. Day after day, year after year, my master became more and more intoxicated by the pleasure brought by alcohol, and my body gradually became fat and greasy. The brothers and sisters around me laughed at me and even gave me a nickname - fatty liver.

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My master's excessive drinking made my condition worse. The large amount of ethanol that could not be metabolized damaged my body, causing liver cell necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration. Alcoholic hepatitis began to gradually spread in my body. As my master's alcoholism intensified, the degeneration and necrosis of liver cells in my body gradually worsened. Under the microscope, it can be seen that the structure of normal liver lobules was destroyed, and a large amount of fibrous tissue proliferated, surrounding regenerated liver cell groups of varying sizes to form pseudolobules in a pathological state, causing my body to continuously deform and harden, and eventually develop into a serious disease - cirrhosis.

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Act III: Resistance

My life was seriously threatened, but my master continued to do what he wanted and drank too much. I was anxious and realized that if I continued like this, I would be at the end of my life. Finally, I made up my mind to teach my master a lesson and make him realize the seriousness of the problem. Under the catalysis of the damage factors, the liver cells in my body continued to proliferate and fission, and eventually turned into cancer cells.

I began to spread the adverse reactions to the owner's whole body, and he began to experience dull pain in the right upper abdomen, lack of appetite, abdominal distension, diarrhea, fever, fatigue, weight loss, etc. In addition, I also quit the job of synthesizing coagulation factors. The platelets in the owner's body dropped sharply, and a series of bleeding symptoms began to appear, such as bleeding gums and nosebleeds. The owner also found that his sclera and skin turned yellow, and spider-like red moles also quietly crawled on his body. This is because I no longer combined and inactivated unconjugated bilirubin and estrogen.

After experiencing these symptoms, my owner finally went to the hospital. The doctor began to perform various tests on me, such as liver function, B-ultrasound, puncture, etc., and finally found that cancer cells had already eroded my body. Fortunately, it was discovered early, and the cancer nodule was less than 3 cm in diameter and had not yet metastasized.

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Act 4: Ending

In the ward, the owner regretted looking at the pathology report, and finally realized the seriousness of the problem. From fatty liver to alcoholic hepatitis, to cirrhosis, and now liver cancer, it was all caused by the owner's long-term bad drinking habits.

The doctor removed the cancerous nodules in my body through surgery, and my master's condition improved significantly. Since then, my master has taken good care of me, completely quit his bad habit of drinking, and actively cooperated with the doctor's treatment, which has helped my body recover and improve.

Finally, after experiencing such a disaster, my master and I were reborn.

Alcoholic liver disease is a serious chronic liver damage disease. The 2020 Global Burden of Disease Study shows that in 2019, an estimated 25% of cirrhosis and 20% of hepatocellular carcinoma deaths worldwide were related to alcohol. My master and I are lucky in misfortune.

Here, I would like to use our story to warn everyone: In the process of developing alcoholic liver disease, no drop of alcohol is innocent. Please cherish your life, take care of your liver, and start by quitting drinking! Let a healthy liver protect every life!