Does the liver have a male or female counterpart? Staying up late for a long time may turn a male's liver into a "female liver"...

People are divided into male and female, and in fact, the liver is also divided into male and female.

Each gender has specific factory settings. Adult males naturally correspond to "male" livers, and females naturally correspond to "female" livers. But did you know that on every night when your circadian rhythm is disrupted, your liver is quietly undergoing a "sex change operation"!

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on March 1, 2022, an international research team led by the University of Queensland found that circadian rhythm disruption triggered endocrine adaptation, causing the diseased liver in men to undergo a "transformation" (sex change). The study suggests that circadian rhythm disruption may protect the liver by affecting hormone levels.

Source: Wikipedia

Researchers believe that the human liver is sexually dimorphic, meaning there are sex differences in how male and female livers metabolize.

Men and women have different reproductive tasks, so there are gender differences in the liver's metabolic process. Compared with men, women's livers are more likely to synthesize fatty acids and triglycerides, and then store fat, while men's livers make fatty acids more easily oxidized and decomposed. This may be related to the need for women to store necessary energy to maintain their reproductive ability, ensure the mobilization of energy reserves at the right time such as pregnancy, provide the necessary nutrients for fetal growth, and ensure the healthy growth of offspring.

And for the sake of reproduction, sex hormones also cleverly regulate the physiological functions of the liver.

Staying up late for a long time may cause liver "degeneration". When a man's liver organ suffers from liver disease caused by lack of sleep and day and night disorder for a long time, the male liver will receive more female hormones and its metabolic mode will gradually begin to transform into that of a female liver.

Source Homemade

As early as June 14, 2018, Della Torre et al. published a paper in the journal Cell Metabolism. Through the study of metabolic differences between female and male mice, they found that there are significant gender differences in the liver metabolic process of female and male mice.

The researchers found that during short-term fasting, female mice had higher levels of genes related to fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis in their livers, indicating a favor for lipid synthesis.

SourceCellMetabolism

Afterwards, the researchers continued to conduct experiments on mice (the mice’s inner thoughts: I knew it was me again), and knocked out the mice’s BMAL1 (transcription factor brain and muscle aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear transporter-like 1) genome alone. The loss of this genome can disrupt their systemic circadian rhythm.

In mouse studies, it was found that the loss of BMAL1 would cause the liver of male mice to become "feminized" and more susceptible to obesity, but it was unexpectedly discovered that the loss of the genome could prevent fatty liver hepatitis, inflammation and fibrosis. It is speculated that it may be the estrogen that causes liver "degeneration" that plays a protective role.

In response to this amazing phenomenon, driven by human curiosity, of course, we also want to see if this amazing phenomenon will occur to us. So the researchers turned their attention to liver biopsy samples from human volunteers.

On March 1, 2022, a new research team published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that circadian rhythm disruption (that is, irregular work and rest) can trigger endocrine adaptation phenomena, causing men's diseased livers to undergo a "degeneration" (gender change).

The study believes that when the circadian rhythm is disrupted, the male liver will receive more estrogen and its metabolic mode will gradually begin to transform to that of the female liver, thereby protecting the normal functioning of the liver.

In this case, some men will extrapolate from this research result: Isn’t that great? Anyway, there is the protection of estrogen. Doesn’t this mean that men are better at “doing the liver” than women?

Source Wikipedia

Ideals are full, but reality is skinny.

The miracle that happened in mice did not happen in humans. Although the human liver's response to the disease is to change the "male liver" into a "female liver", this does not mean that this type of transmutation is a good and perfect transformation mechanism, because the researchers found that in human samples, this transformation process did not prevent the increase in liver fibrosis.

Liver fibrosis refers to the proliferation of fibrous tissue caused by various damaging factors. Just like the scar left on the face after being scratched by a sharp object, liver fibrosis is also a scar repair reaction after the liver is damaged.

Bad behaviors such as staying up late and drinking alcohol frequently will cause these "scars" to accumulate. The consequences can be imagined. They will destroy the normal structure and function of the liver and eventually develop into cirrhosis.

The liver is the "detoxification factory" in the human body, and it is responsible for maintaining life. All kinds of drugs and poisons, whether from the body or from outside, can be completely decomposed and converted into non-toxic or less toxic substances under the action of the "miracle doctor" liver, or directly excreted from the body in their original form. Therefore, the liver is precious and important to humans.

So there is no such thing as a free lunch. If you are not born with a lot of liver like the big guys, then you should sleep well, have a healthy work and rest schedule, and protect your little liver.

END

Reviewer: Wu Xinsheng, deputy chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology, the 371st Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army.

Tadpole Musical Notation original article, please indicate the source when reprinting

Editor/Xiao Xitushuo